Love in War
by Darkironprincess17
Summary: He's a bored shinigami. She's a World War One soldier pretending to be a guy. What will happen when the Scarlet Reaper and the Red Prince cross paths? Can love really bloom on the battlefield? GrellxOC. Please read and review!
1. the beginning

Chapter 1: The beginning

"Announcing the murder of the Archduke of Austria! Austria-Hungary has declared war on Serbia!" The paper boys had been all running around, announcing it all over London a little while ago. England had declared war and troops from all around the country were starting to mobilize. A girl sat on a bridge in the country, dangling her feet over the edge. Her blond braids blew in the wind, tied back with red ribbons. She wore a plain salt and pepper grey dress. She gazed sadly at the river running under the bridge. Soon, everything would change in her life, and not for the better.

Soon the lands of the world would be stained with the many shades of crimson, people she would know would start dying. Her brother might never come back from war. She loved her brother dearly, and didn't want him to go. She knew without a doubt that he would receive a mobilization letter. She wanted to tell him to run away, so that he didn't have to go to war. She wondered what she could do. War was a horrible thing.

She gazed up at the blue sky and the clouds that rolled over it sometimes. How bad would this become?

X-x-x-x-x-X

"So the countries have all declared war now?"

"Yes sir"

"How stupid" William sighed. "More overtime for us. I highly doubt we'll ever see this amount of souls anywhere." He said, glancing at his to-die list, which was halfway full from just one day's work.

"What do we do now, sir?"

"I'm going to split the dispatch into teams for each battle. One partner will take care of the casualties on one line of battle, the other on the other line." He paused and looked over his shoulder. "Grell Sutcliff. How much longer were you planning to make us wait?"

Grell paused halfway between the dispatch lobby and the entrance. He had been trying to sneak in unnoticed.

"A lady needs her sleep!" He said indignantly.

"You need to get to work on time" William said, frowning. "A war has started in the human world. You'll be taking care of the casualties on the British side of the line."

"Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" Grell said as he stared at the impossible amount of souls he had to collect within a day. He already wasn't getting enough sleep, and now he was being worked like a horse. At this rate, he'd be hard pressed to collect all the souls. He knew for sure that if he messed up even once, he'd get demoted, if not even fired if he happened to kill the wrong person. And he had to do this all by himself… This was going to be a nightmare. He sighed and got out his chainsaw.

"And I suppose that battle is already about to start?"

"You have two hours."

"Just wonderful" Grell sighed. He tucked his to-die list back in his pocket and wandered outside. He shredded the air with his death scythe and the portal to the human world opened. He stepped through it.

_This is going to be such a pain in the ass…_

X-x-X

He landed on the roof of a tent. He carefully slid down the tent wall so he wouldn't get seen. Grell looked around. Dozens of soldiers were moving around, carrying ammunition, barbed wire and halfway finished landmines. It was a little bit of a disappointment. They weren't all young and handsome like he'd hoped.

He wandered around, hoping maybe to catch a glimpse of some of the people who he was supposed to kill. All the soldiers were so preoccupied with war preparations that they didn't notice him at all… Until one of them carrying a crate full of ammo smashed right into him.

"Ow, watch it!"

"Sorry" The guy muttered and began picking up the dropped ammunition. He scrambled around and threw them all back into the crate he had been carrying. He picked it up and looked Grell in the face. A shiver passed down his spine. The boy was young. He had features that were almost delicate somehow. He couldn't have been older than nineteen. He had chin length blond hair that stuck up everywhere. It was much longer than everyone else's, but it was still acceptable. He had sea blue eyes that were clear like the surface of a lake, tan skin and a light spray of barely visible freckles just under his eyes. So adorable…

He couldn't see the boy's name through the lenses of his glasses, so he figured he wasn't going to die any time soon.

"I don't think I've ever seen you around." The boy said. He frowned slightly at Grell's appearance. Like most people, he probably couldn't tell whether Grell was a man or a woman. "Are you a new recruit?" His voice was high for a boy's, and it had a nice ring to it that could calm anyone down. Grell had to think quickly about his answer so the boy wouldn't notice his pause.

"No. I just came to see that preparations were going well."

"Oh, so you come from Her Majesty!"

"I guess you could say that. Hey, what's your name, kid?"

"Jaime."

"What's your specialty?"

"I'm a sharpshooter by training, a sniper on the battlefield."

_Ooh… even better… I do love a man with wonderful eyesight. My, my, he just riles me right up! So very charming…_

"Knightwood! What the hell are you doing? Get back to work right this minute!" A gruff voice called from behind them. "We're not gonna win the war on our own!" Jaime yelped and shot up as if he'd just swallowed a metal pole.

"Right away, sir" He turned back to Grell. "I'm very sorry" He walked away quickly with the box of ammunition.

_Jaime Knightwood… What a lovely name. _

Grell turned away.

_Remind me to return tomorrow… _


	2. the red princess

**Hey everyone ^^ Darkironprincess17 here. I just wanted to clear a tiny thing up with you. Here when you read, Jaime's name is going to change in spelling, and it will constantly change for a few chapters. Whenever it's from Grell's point of view, it's going to be spelled Jaime, but when it's from her point of view, it will be spelled Jaymee and that is the true spelling of her name. Grell hasn't seen her write her name so he's got no idea how to spell it. Grell is also going to refer to Jaymee as 'he' until chapter 4 or 5. **

Chapter 2: the red princess

The battle had been impossibly difficult. The Germans had won, and the numbers of the English were down by quite a bit. Luckily, everyone Jaime knew had survived. It was always hard to remember that men weren't as sentimental with their friends like women were. It was a difficult thing to relearn one's habits.

"Hey, Knightwood! Good work on the battle." Jaime turned.

"Oh, colonel. Thank you."

"That makes your killing count up to 340 Germans. You'll be the Red Knight of England soon."

"There's no way I can stand up to Von Richthofen. I don't know how to fly a plane." Jaime protested.

"But you can shoot him right out of the sky, can't ya?" He asked, clapping Jaime on the back. "Best sharpshooter I've ever seen. Keep it up." He said as he walked away. Jaime walked back inside the tent and picked up the file off the ground and opened it.

_Name: Jaymee Rose Knightwood_

_Sex: Female_

_Age: 20_

_British citizen since 1898_

Her heart started racing. Had anyone seen the folder? Had they found out she was a girl? She dusted chalk overtop of the folder. No… no one's fingerprints except for her own. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was so stupid that she had to carry this thing around with her during the war. She knew she could face severe charges if she was caught, especially since she was a woman and since she was lying to the government.

When her brother had received the mobilization letter from the military, she knew with all her heart that he could not go. She just had the sinking feeling that if he ever walked out of that door; he would never come walking in. So she had taken advantage of her thin boyish build and unisex name; had cut her blonde hair off with kitchen shears until it was chin length, had stolen her brother's military uniform, and had walked out the door for him, ignoring her mother's pleas for her not to do this.

She was just as tough as any guy. She could pull through all this. It got really tough, especially when the Germans used the toxic gases. She sometimes had trouble getting the gas mask over her head. But since she was a sniper, she rarely was in the line of fire and was rarely ever in danger. Lying in a trench of her own, expertly dug further away from all the other trenches, she would take aim and fire, killing many enemies when they didn't even know what was coming their way. She had been smart enough not to put sandbags around her trench. One couldn't even tell there was a trench there until they got within three meters of the thing. She had been nicknamed the 'red prince' of England because of how many soldiers she had shot down so quickly, and that number only grew. She snorted. More like 'red princess' maybe.

Nights were hard, cold and rough. Rats and spiders scurried there and back around the trench. She didn't mind the rats but the spiders... ugh. She had been arachnophobic since she was little, and it took all her willpower not to scream like a girl every time she saw them. She had seen the most disgusting one yesterday… Anyway, she found it quite ironic, actually. She could drive a tank, she could kill people without breaking a sweat, but she freaked out at even the sight of a spider. Just thinking about them sent shivers up her spine.

Her mother sent her frequent notes, which Jaymee always hated. She was always worried that her mother might slip up and drop something of a hint in one of the letters that she was a girl. It was her letter and her business, but some of the men liked to snoop around to find out more about their comrades. However, she always anticipated the packets of food she was always sent from home. Her mother sent her food frequently, as she had heard the horrifying conditions of the soldiers and wished to spare Jaymee from that pain even in the slightest.

Jaymee got sick really easily here in the trenches. Rats carried disease like nothing else. She knew however that she had to get better or else she would die. Her will to live overpowered any minor disease within a matter of weeks. Sometimes it would be difficult to walk or something else, but she would always keep at it no matter what. Either way, she lived in better conditions than those in the main trenches, that was for sure.

Sometimes she would wake up to the sound of a mine blowing up and a soldier screaming in agony in the neutral zone, the no man's land. It was enough to drive anyone crazy, but she kept going, reloading her rifle. She had a bayonet attached to her rifle just in case she didn't notice someone coming up behind her in the trenches.

She thought about it all through training. She stood up, shook her head and slung her rifle over her shoulder and breathed in the cold French air.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" She turned. It was the same… dude? Person… from yesterday. She couldn't even tell. Was it a guy or a girl? It was rude to ask, so she kept her mouth shut. Judging by the low voice, she guessed it was a guy. He wore his red coat around his elbows like usual and smiled. She had to look up to see his face. She was five foot five; pretty short for a guy but she managed. She guessed this guy was maybe five foot nine, four inches taller than her.

She bowed politely.

"Good afternoon"

"No need for the formalities. I'm glad to see you lived"

"Thank you. Why are you here today? Do you have some sort of report to do for the queen?" Jaymee asked. She had no idea why the queen would nominate someone so weird to inspect the war areas. Then again, who was she to judge? She was pretty weird herself.

"Yeah… it's really boring" Grell lied. Jaymee smiled.

"I'm guessing you're going to be here for a little while, then."

"Yeah"

"Can I have your name?" She asked.

"Grell Sutcliff" He said. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Isn't 'Grell' a German name?"

"I'm of German descent but I was born in England."

She relaxed.

"Okay. That's good then. I've heard that Germans are rather good spies."

"I wouldn't worry about it."

They talked for a little bit until the colonel ordered Jaymee to get working again. She did the rest of her training somewhat in a dream. Grell was a guy. Great… she would have felt really weird had he been a woman. The problem was he seemed to think she was a guy, and he seemed to be flirting with her on the purpose of thinking that she was a guy. She shook her head, clearing out all the thoughts… But she did love the way he looked at her.

Bang!

She had missed the bull's eye. She cursed and made herself concentrate. This time, she hit it right on the center. She loved the color of his hair, and the way he smiled. She loved his eccentric and flamboyant personality. It was hard to believe that any human could be like that, but there he was. She sighed dreamily and wandered off in the direction of her new partially-completed trench. She finished digging it, and then threw all the remaining dirt away so that no one would notice it. She clambered out of the hole and took a few steps back. Nope, completely invisible. No one would see it for hell.

She settled herself down in a little dirt impression that she had made in the wall of her trench and after making sure there were no spiders, fell asleep. One could only guess what~ or who she dreamed about.

**aww :3 she's falling for Grell XDD **

**good news for Sweet with a Bit of Death fans and Cruel Beauty readers.**

**I'm stringing all the stories together! I'm not quite ready to scrap Lily and Leah**

**just yet, so they'll be appearing in later chapters!**

**please review! reviews are like the air that i breathe**

**~darkironprincess17**


	3. the battle of the Somme

Chapter 3: the battle of the Somme

The battle lasted much longer than Jaymee had planned. She thought maybe several weeks, perhaps a month or two, but there was no way she could have guessed that the battle would last 141 days. Her blonde hair got caked in dirt until it was the same color as the dirt. She was often wet, dirty and cold. She hadn't had a shower in forever. When it rained, her trench would fill up with water. She had drilled holes in the board floor above the floor of her trench so that the water could accumulate there and she would stay more or less dry. However, sometimes there was so much water that it would go over the holes and she would have to sleep standing up.

It had been several months. She hadn't gotten out of her trench in more than a month. She glanced down at her case that contained all her sniper rifle supplies. She began to get worried. What would happen when she ran out of ammo? She was getting dangerously close to her last supply of gunpowder, and she just ate her last vegetable ragout yesterday.

It was night time. Jaymee never slept soundly because of the fear that someone might discover her trench. She heard soft footsteps walking up. Her eyes snapped open. Who the hell would it be in this dead of night? She kept hoping they would go the other way, but they kept on going to her trench… inching closer, closer and closer. She grabbed her bayonet and pointed the shotgun directly in front of the person's forehead.

"Whoa, easy!" The voice whispered. She recognized that voice.

"Grell?"

"Put the thing down please, you're making me nervous"

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked, clambering out of the trench just enough so that he could see her face. She glanced in the direction of the enemy lines. "You're British! If they see you, they'll kill you!" Surprisingly, Grell didn't seem fazed by that fact. Though all the colours were bleached black and white in the darkness, his hair and clothes would still be like waving a red flag to a bull saying 'I'm over here!' to the enemy. She was genuinely worried for his safety. He took the bag he was carrying and gave it to her.

"Here. Take it."

She hesitantly opened the bag. In there, she found at least several weeks' worth of food, a whole ton of ammunition, two extra bayonets and a couple more supplies. She looked up at Grell with wondering eyes.

"Why would you do this for me?"

"I want you to stay alive" He said. "It's not every day that you come across someone so fine like yourself. You have to take care of yourself."

An involuntary blush colored her cheeks.

"Thank you…"

He glanced up.

"I'd better get moving before the sun comes up. Get some sleep, darling"

_Darling? What the hell? _

"I will."

She ducked back down in her trench. The footsteps walked quietly away before disappearing completely. She poked her head back over the trench. He was gone. Had it been an illusion? Could anyone even move that fast? She settled down in her trench. Ah, who cares?

X-x-x-x-x-x-X

Grell carefully walked around the battlefield, taking the souls from the bodies of the dead. Sometimes he would accidentally step on a mine. Fire didn't hurt him, but it sure made him angry when it burned a part of his heel off his left shoe. If he'd been human, he would have died at least twenty times while walking around the no man's land. He stumbled around, reaping the souls of the dead soldiers. His chainsaw roared in the night, but as usual, it didn't wake anyone up. He thought of Jaime's bright blue eyes. He was glad he couldn't see his name through the lenses of his glasses. It meant that his name wasn't on the to-die list.

The 'Red Prince' of Britain was so much more of a stud than he expected. Jaime was cute and considerate, yet ruthless and cold. Oh, it just sent shivers up his spine… He never knew someone so young could be so good at what they did. He would keep a watch on him, try to keep him safe, and after the war, he would make sure Jaime became a shinigami.

The battle of the Somme was almost over, he hoped. Jaime wouldn't have another war mission until the battle of the Vimy Crest which was only in a couple more months. He smiled. The color red suited him so nicely… Especially when his British uniform was stained in blood splatters from the battlefield.

Ugh… speaking of blood splatters… He kicked a dead body over with his shoe and kept walking. Almost half of the British troops sent to the battle of the Somme were already dead, killed by the Germans when they didn't know how to retreat properly. Some people needed to seriously revise their war strategies.

He teleported back into the shinigami realm and stumbled into his house, slamming the door. He was really tired. He took out his to-die list and stamped all the names of the souls he had taken. William better be satisfied with his work. His to-die list was almost entirely full with names. He needed to get a new one filled or magically add new pages in. He'd be hard pressed by the time this war was over.

But still, it wasn't a bad way of living. It wasn't that bad collecting souls on the battlefield. Especially since he'd found Jaime. He was one hundred- no, two hundred percent sure that Jaime was the one for him. Jaime was everything that Grell had been looking for and more. He had him wrapped entirely around his little finger. No one had ever been able to influence Grell that much since… well, ever, really. He'd made what was supposed to be a boring and horrible task quite enjoyable.

He wondered what the next day would be like.


	4. wait, you're a girl?

Chapter 4: wait, you're a girl?

The battle of the Somme was finally over. Completely exhausted, Jaymee climbed out of her trench. She owed her life to Grell. A part of her thought that if he hadn't come in the middle of the night to bring her food, she would have been much weaker than she was now, and might not have survived. She shook her dirty hair and took a look at herself. Her bright red uniform was covered in dirt and blood splatters. Some of it was hers, and some of it was the blood of a German soldier who had discovered her. But she had killed him before he could say anything to his comrades.

She wondered what the next fight would be and when. She knew she had a few weeks before they had to move to a different battle location. She swayed slightly and took a backwards step to steady herself. She walked to the back area where they had set up hundreds of tents. She ducked under the one that was marked with her name. It wasn't the best, but it would have to do. She found a new uniform laid at the foot of the moveable bed.

She walked to the mirror and took a look at herself. She barely recognized herself. Her hair was many shades darker than it originally was, her face covered in cuts, but that wasn't what scared her. It was her eyes. Something in them had changed. They were still the light ice blue they used to be, but they were as hard as ice, with absolutely no hesitation. Eyes that said _I will kill you if you get in my way. _They were the eyes of a murderer.

How many people had she killed already? She knew that number was in the hundreds, if not in the thousands. She felt horrible, but what could be done? She'd rather kill than get killed, and that was the law of war. She'd much rather be here than in the place of her brother, and she didn't regret her choice. She hadn't died yet, and she wouldn't die any time soon.

She opened the package her mom had sent her, carefully read the letter over and burnt it shortly afterwards. She kept on glancing at her pocket watch. The barracks were empty after 8 usually. She could then go in and change. She threw the package on the ground and something else fell out. She bent down and picked it up.

"You have got to be kidding me." It was a hairbrush. It was bright pink. A hairbrush that was hideously conspicuous in every possible manner. She couldn't burn this or the smell of burning would reach through the entire camp. If she was in someone else's place and she saw a guy carrying this, she would start to doubt their sanity. She quickly began thinking of a lie to tell if anyone noticed it. She'd probably just say that it was something 'his girlfriend' told her to keep for luck. She'd get laughed at, but she wouldn't get discovered.

She tucked her clean uniform and her hairbrush under her arm and walked to the barracks.

X-x-x-x-x-X

"Hey, Will?"

"What is it?" William asked, not even looking up.

"Is there any chance for a human to become a shinigami?"

"Yes. Why would you ask? Don't you have work to be doing?"

"Just answer my question. The battle doesn't start until two months from now."

"There are other battles to take care of, Grell Sutcliff"

"The time of death isn't until midnight!" Grell said, exasperated. "Can you please answer my question?"

"There is a possibility for a human to become a shinigami. They have to be skilled at killing, however. Only the most skilled assassins usually become shinigami. The stakes are very high. Most killers and assassins, no matter how good they are, are sent to hell to pay back the souls they killed. However, if that killer's soul is more or less pure, they are given the opportunity to become shinigami and pay off their debt in years of service. They also have to be on the to-die list."

_Jaime's already good enough to be a shinigami. _Grell thought dreamily.

"Thanks, Will" He walked back outside. Great news. Now all he had to do was win Jaime's heart, a task that was, in reality, already complete. However, it wasn't the way he expected. Not in the least. He walked back into the human world, wanting to go see Jaime.

X-x-x-x-x-X

After checking no one was there, Jaymee shut the door and took off her uniform. Bandages covered her form in an attempt to cover up her girly figure. She dunked a bucket of water over her head, shook her dirty hair out and combed through it. It was many shades lighter by the time she was done, but still filthy.

Her bandages didn't hide the very long, very ugly jagged scar on her stomach. It was no longer puckered, but it was as white as chalk. Though she had gotten it many years ago, it was still an ugly white, standing out on her skin, a constantly unpleasant reminder of something she'd much rather forget. She could still hear her father's angry voice yelling in the back of her mind. _No_… she told herself firmly. _I will not remember that man. That man is not my father. He was wrong. I am not a broken girl. I am not garbage._

She carefully wrapped the bandages back around her figure after they were more or less dry and put the pants on of her army uniform. She was about to reach for another layer of bandages when the door cracked open.

X-x-x-x-x-X

"Excuse me; have you seen a soldier named Jaime Knightwood?" Grell asked a random soldier.

"Yeah, he just walked into the barracks a little while ago" The soldier replied.

"Thanks"

Grell walked off in the direction of the barracks. Hoping to woo Jaime, he couldn't wait to see the blond haired boy again. He walked through the barracks. He opened one door. No, not there… He walked and opened another door. He walked down the corridor and opened the door.

Jaime whipped around, his eyes wide. His figure was entirely hidden by bandages. Grell's first thought was that he had been injured, but the figure was girly, with a waist and hips. Jaime shrieked, and it was so high that it nearly made Grell's ears hurt. A pink hair brush went flying through the air and hit Grell in the forehead.

He shut the door, an involuntary blush coloring his cheeks.

What the hell did he just see? A girly figure… high voice, and it wasn't a falsetto either, pink hairbrush… Either this guy was gayer than he was or…the light bulb in his head flickered on… this was not a guy. What the hell would a woman be doing in the army?

Wait… So the guy he'd been so attracted to hadn't been a guy after all? What?


	5. the promise

Chapter 5: the promise

Jaymee let her face hit the mirror. Dammit! What the hell was Grell doing here? Her secret was pretty much ruined now. Unless she could stop him from saying something… but the only way to do that was to kill him, and she really didn't want to do that. She carefully put her uniform on. She opened the door. Grell was still there, looking at her with a puzzled expression.

"Jaime, you're a girl?" He asked. Panic seized her and she grabbed the front of his vest, her eyes wide and panicked.

"You have to swear never to tell anyone." She said seriously. "I'm going to die if the government finds out what I'm doing. I'll get sent to jail, possibly even executed."

"Hey, calm down. I wasn't going to say anything." Grell said. "Your secret is safe with me."

That last line made her burst out laughing. Grell had never heard Jaymee laugh before and now that he thought of it, it was really high for a guy's voice.

"What's so funny?" He wondered.

"I'm sorry; it's just that you look like the last person who can keep a secret… aah…" She sighed, still smiling as Grell bristled. It seemed like he wasn't the only one who changed personalities really easily.

"Hey, I can too!"

"We'll see. Phew… I don't have to keep my voice so low anymore when I'm around you." Her voice went up by several pitches until it was much higher than before and actually sounded like a girl's.

"How do you do that?" Grell wondered.

"I've been singing ever since I was a little girl" Jaymee explained. "I have a really high vocal range, so changing my voice isn't a problem. This is what I really sound like."

"Hmm… I don't really know much about you, Jaymee. I never knew much about you from the start. Care to tell me a little bit about your life?" He asked, smiling a Cheshire cat like smirk and elbowing her. "I must admit, I'm a wee bit curious about what you're hiding" He said.

"I'm not hiding anything besides my gender" She said, but she still invited him inside the little private tent that she had gotten to herself. They spent a little while talking and learning about each other. Now Grell was lost. He didn't know how he would tell her that he was a shinigami. She'd kept secrets from him as well, but he wasn't angry. He'd been deceived, yes, but it just made him more in awe that a woman could do all of this while barely even breaking a sweat. It just convinced him even more that Jaymee was special.

"I don't really have any parents. My mom died when I was eight and my dad abandoned us. My brother and I get along really well."

"I see… so that's why you didn't want him to go to war." Grell said. "That's soooo cute, you're so sensitive, Jaymee darling"

"Wouldn't you do so for your own siblings?" Jaymee asked, raising an eyebrow at the nickname 'darling'. They weren't that close. This guy seemed to be very familiar with everyone.

"I don't have any siblings, nor do I have any family." Grell said, shrugging. "My best friend is the closest thing I have to a sister. But yes, I would do the same for her and I have."

"Now that's cute" She said, smirking sneakily. "Can you see without your glasses?"

"Pretty well. What is it?" Grell asked, looking confused. She stole his glasses off his face from right under his nose. "Hey!"

She put them on her face. "Wow you must be blind. I can barely see out of these." Grell looked at her and seemed to be unable to look away. Thankfully he could actually see without glasses, unlike Will. Unlike for most people, glasses actually worked for her. The red contrasted sharply with her blue eyes and made them bigger and brighter. He noted that they were precisely the color of a cloudless sky. The more he seemed to look at her, the more he couldn't believe he'd ever thought she had been a man.

She noticed him staring, smiled and put the glasses back on his face.

"So the 'Red Prince' of England is really the 'Red Princess', huh?"

"Yeah, that's about right"

"Did I ever say that the color red looks stunning on you?" He asked, pushing her chin up gently with his hand, bringing her face closer to his. She blushed involuntarily. He loved the color her face turned, a blush red giving color to that flawless facial complexion. She had a tiny scar beside her ear that was barely visible, but it was so small that it didn't detract from her beauty. "Only specific people are fit to wear red. You are one of those few, and you make it look good"

"T-thank you"

Grell smiled slightly.

"When are you going to leave the army?"

"Once the war ends or once I'm too injured to fight" She said.

"All this for your brother?" Grell wondered. "You're so beautiful. You could be anything, anyone, and yet you're throwing it all away?"

"He's the only family I've got left… besides my 'mother'. She's really my extended aunt, but she makes me and my brother call her 'mother'." She said. "And still, it's not the same as an actual blood relative." She said, looking away. He knew there was something she wasn't telling him by the hasty way she changed the subject. "So what's your best friend's name?"

"Leah."

"That's a nice name. It's really sad you don't have any family."

"I get by perfectly fine without them." Grell said, and it was the truth. Time did miracles, and especially a lot of time. Nearly a thousand years had passed, and he was happy for the fact that it had.

"Hmm…" She read his facial expression easily and laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be staying as long as I can here." She said. He returned the smile. She slipped a piece of paper into his hand.

"What did you say to me a few weeks ago? 'It's not every day you come across someone so fine like yourself.'" She quoted. "I'm not going anywhere and neither are you"

"Well then it's a promise" Grell said, smiling his Cheshire cat smirk.


	6. remobilization

Chapter 6: remobilization

"Crap" Jaymee started to get her bag together. A crash from outside made her drop her bag on her foot. Pausing only to employ a few of her best swear words, she dragged her bag outside and threw it in the tank standing a few meters away. She climbed on the top of the tank and slid in. Of course her bag had to land on the driver's seat. With a lot of difficulty, she put it carefully in the next compartment. She had the urge to just throw it, but she had a lot of ammunition in there, and couple of locked landmines, but who knew what could happen to them if shaken hard enough.

She climbed back out of the tank to pack up her tent. She carefully collapsed the tent and, after making sure it was perfectly closed, threw it into the tank as well. She wandered around, checking all the levels in the tank, making sure that it was in working order.

"Jaymee!" Jaymee turned around to see Grell walking towards her. She took her oily gloves off her hands and threw them into the nearby fire pit, the fire in which was almost out. It sparked and burst into flames nearly as tall as she was. Much better…

"Hey" She smiled. Grell returned the smile and wiped a bit of grease off her face.

"You're doing a great job so far" He said.

"I'm doing a great job with what?" She wondered.

"-with the secret. You look like such a grease monkey right now that I would have never guessed." He said, smirking. She playfully flung a little drop of oil at him, which he dodged. "So what's with the tank, darling?"

"We've just been summoned to our next battle, the Vimy's Crest in Belgium. We've been sent as reinforcements. The Canadians are taking most of the battle, but we still need to mobilize." She sighed. "What a pain in the ass… at least Belgium isn't that far away… but it's so close to Germany that I'm nervous." She said.

She began to say something else but froze when she heard a clink against the other side of the tank. Grell ran towards her, grabbed her and pulled her down to the ground just as the runaway grenade blew up.

"What's the problem?" She asked, confused.

"What do you mean, what's the problem? A grenade just blew up in your face!"

Seeing Grell's expression, Jaymee laughed.

"This baby was trained to withstand explosions of almost any kind. We can roll over landmines _sans probleme_ as the French say. Sometimes we knock out a cog or two, but those can be fixed easily." She said, knocking on the door of the tank.

"Hey, Knightwood, are you all right?" A soldier came running up.

"Yes, we're fine. What was that?" Jaymee wondered, clearing her throat so that her voice went back to the lower pitch.

"A rookie mishandled the grenade. We didn't mean it to go off, please accept our apologies."

"Hey, no harm done" She said, smiling quietly.

"You're too kind, Lord Knightwood."

The soldier walked away and Jaymee hoisted herself up onto the tank.

"Well, aren't you coming?" She asked.

"What?"

"There's a reason the tank is made for more than one person. You've got to get to Belgium anyway, if you're writing a report for Her Majesty."

Grell hesitated and then jumped into the tank. He'd just make up a reason for leaving overnight. He watched in amazement as Jaymee twiddled some knobs, started the engine and easily controlled the tank. And they were off… He could hardly believe that a woman would be able to do this so well. She pulled off her disguise well. The tank moved rather slowly and Grell soon knew that it was more worth passing the time than anything else. He was fascinated, watching her drive the tank. It seemed to be easy enough for her, as she was able to control it with ease, managing to talk with him at the same time. He found himself more able to talk to her, and it was nice. He was never bored and she was able to keep a conversation flowing easily. He'd been told a lot of the time that he did most, if not all of the talking, but Jaymee didn't seem to mind. She was generally a quiet person, and seemed very interested in everything he had to say, and in all of his opinions.

He felt a twinge of unease every time he had to lie. Normally, he was great at this and could lie his way out of anything without even feeling guilty, manipulating himself and others to believe that it was the truth that he was telling them. Now he didn't even know what to think. What would Jaymee say when she found out? She would undoubtedly figure it out sometime. Would she even believe him? Would it destroy everything they had together at this moment?

"Is something wrong?" Jaymee asked.

"Hmm? No, nothing" Grell said.

However, if Jaymee was the person for him, then it would be possible to work it out. He was still stunned at the fact that she was a girl. So he had been created as a guy for a reason. It was still odd to think about it. He didn't even know what to think anymore.

They travelled slowly, and it was nearly two in the morning and they were only halfway there. She felt really tired, and was struggling to keep the tank moving in a straight direction. Grell noticed the fact that she was really tired. He'd been watching her drive the tank for a few hours now, and was sure that he could copy what she'd been doing with at least some success.

"Here, switch with me" He said. "I'll drive it for a little while"

"Do you even know how to drive a tank?"

"Don't insult my intelligence, of course I do" Grell said, picking her up, putting her into the next seat and moving to sit in front of the control panel, all without any bumps or problems. It wasn't as easy as it looked, but he managed well.

"See, I told you so" He began to say, turning to look at her. Jaymee was already asleep, out like a light on the control desk. He smiled, shook his head and continued to drive through the snow covered plains of Belgium.


	7. Leah's advice

**Hey everyone, darkironprincess17 here! I might not be able to update as quickly as I would like to nowadays, I'm super busy and my grandma just came over and… e.e let's just leave it at that. Sooo expect updates only every several days not every day like I used to. . Anyway, Leah comes back into the story in this chapter.**

** For new readers, please look up my story 'sweet with a bit of death', in which Leah first appears. But you're not really missing anything if you don't. All you need to know is that she's Grell's best friend and married to William. **

** I don't own anything except for my OC's Leah and Jaymee! **

Chapter 7: Leah's advice

They reached Vimy's crest in the early morning. Jaymee jumped out of the tank easily and he had followed into the blinding snow.

"Jeez..." Jaymee complained, shielding her eyes against the snow and wind that whipped at her face. "How am I supposed to aim in this weather?"

Grell got a coat out of the tank and put it around her shoulders. He gave Jaymee her bayonet and closed the tank door.

"Where are you going?" Jaymee wondered.

"I'm leaving for a little while. I have… a few of the Queen's escorts… waiting for me here." He lied. She didn't seem to notice the pauses and merely nodded.

"Be careful" She said.

"You too" He walked off. As soon as he was certain that she couldn't see him anymore, he got his death scythe and walked through the portal into the shinigami world. Leah was waiting for him. She smiled. Her amber blonde hair was barrel curled and pinned up messily with a large hair clip, her green-gold eyes shimmering in the sunlight.

"You're back" She said and hugged him. Leah had recently given back the powers that she had inherited as the child of death. Even without those powers, children of death were still extraordinarily powerful. She had retained her powers of telekinesis and her death scythe could still change forms. It was a strange difference for him. Her eyes had once been almost entirely yellow. They no longer glowed with bright yellow light, but were the standard shinigami colour.

"Would you like to come in for a little bit?" She asked, opening the door for him. The ruby ring on her finger seemed to sparkle even brighter than normal. He tried not to stare at it resentfully. "William's working overtime today." She said. Her new house was nice and neat, and as usual with Leah, nothing was blue except for a few things. Several new photographs were on the mantelpiece of the fireplace. He recognized their childhood pictures, some older pictures and there were newer ones as well. He saw some wedding photos and a couple of recent ones of her and William.

"Aw… I wanted to see him." Grell complained.

"As do I. I never see either of you anymore because of the stupid war." Leah said.

"So how come you weren't dispatched?" Grell asked as she set the kettle.

"I'm in charge of soul collecting for World War Two. For now it's like I'm on vacation from my job." She said as she set two teacups down onto the table.

"There's going to be a second war?" Grell asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, in a couple of decades… it's a waste of time, isn't it?"

"You hate war, don't you?"

"I was nearly killed because of one, and not just once." She pointed out.

"Ah, right…" Grell stared down at his mug. He hadn't touched his tea.

"Is there something on your mind?" Leah asked.

"You know me too well." He sighed. She giggled at this.

"You can tell me anything, you know. Is there anything I can help out with?"

"Yeah, I guess…" He didn't even know where to begin. "I recently met a woman a few months ago…"

Leah stayed silent as Grell talked, her hands folded under her chin, listening attentively. Once he finished, she stayed silent.

"That's it?" She asked.

"Yes."

She started laughing.

"What?" Grell asked, extremely confused.

"You're worrying for nothing." She said, still laughing. "If she really likes you, she'll understand anything you tell her. If she doesn't, then forget her. She kept a secret from you, as well, so use that to your liking as well."

"But it's not the same thing, keeping your gender a secret and keeping the fact that you're a bloody shinigami a secret."

"Like I said, she'll understand. The time will come soon, and you'll have to say it. That is if you really like her."

"Hell I like her! Why the hell do you think I've stayed around this long?"

She shrugged.

"Then I don't see the problem. As for the human part of the equation… the chances of her being on the to-die list are pretty great. So, when that time comes, I'm going to tweak a few things up for you and see if she can become a shinigami."

"Thanks, Lee-lee."

"No problem."

Grell stood up.

"I think I should go to check up on her. It is the battle of Vimy's crest after all..."

"All right, be careful." She said as Grell walked out of her house. She still hadn't answered many of his questions, but talking to Leah gave him a clearer head and helped him understand more. He wondered whether things could really work with Jaymee.


	8. Vimy's crest

**Hey people, sorry for the long wait! ^_^" Had to restart chapter eight alllllll over again. My bad… tee hee. Anyway, this chapter isn't a lot of talking, but a lot of actions. My fluff meter is filled with ideas, but I have to save them for later chapters. Please review and tell me what you think! Your reviews are what helps bring Jaymee and Grell together, and it's what helps me keep writing!**

Chapter 8: Vimy's crest

The battle was shorter than Jaymee had planned, mostly because her sector had been mobilized late and had arrived late into the battle. She crouched down in the freezing cold snow and fired at whatever enemies she could see. She normally wouldn't fire at those fighting on land in fear of hitting an ally. She knew that the Canadians were helping the British in this battle. Good of them to be of use.

She took aim at a plane with the German markings on its wings and fired. The bullets lodged themselves into the motor of the plane, causing it to catch on fire. She felt a small twinge of guilt as she saw the plane crash down with a huge explosion. The twinge of guilt, however, got smaller and smaller with every soldier she killed. She didn't want to believe the fact that she was a murderer, but the evidence was irrefutable. Her conscience was fading with each battle, the murderous instinct and the craving for bloodshed burning everything else out in her mind.

She looked up again. Jaymee recognized the plane of a friend of hers, someone she'd been close to since the beginning of boot camp. She knew that plane well because she'd help him clean and repair it so many times. She hoped he'd come out of this okay. But she shouldn't have wished anything because it never went her way. Soon after, a German plane opened fire on him. The plane went down in a dark plume of smoke.

"No!" Her high shriek was thankfully lost in the howling winds.

In a haze of rage, she threw her sniper rifle on the ground and got out her machine gun. She aimed all of her bullets at the German pilot. She didn't know whether or not it was her bullets or the rounds fired from the neighbouring British plane that made the German plane fall. She felt a bitter satisfaction as she watched the two dark figures fall out of the sky. She packed her machine gun away and resumed her fighting. She would go and pay her respects to her friend later.

X-x-x-x-x-X

Grell walked back through the portal, back into the cold snow. He got out his to-die list and started to walk around, hoping to get a head start on reaping souls. So much overtime… when would William ever give him a break?

He paused mid step and had to read the name several times. If the name on the to-die list was written in black that meant that death was certain. If it was written in purple, it meant that death wasn't certain, but it was still possible. He still didn't like it one bit. The lenses of his glasses glowed bright red, the heat coming off them burning away the snowflakes that had come to rest on the lenses. He was so angry he was ready to kill, not knowing or caring whether the person who did the damage was on the to-die list or not, because the name that had just appeared in purple was Jaymee Rose Knightwood.

X-x-x-x-x-X

In all her anger, Jaymee had let her guard down. She hadn't noticed the enemy sniper who had crawled up on the hill behind her. Had she not moved in the last split second, it would have hit her in the back and killed her instantly. Instead, the bullet missed all of her vital areas and nicked her in the side. Her blood spattered onto the snow but she ignored the searing pain that was like a wildfire. She rounded on the sniper and shot him twice, once in the head and once in the neck. It was an easy kill.

She fell onto her knees. Why did it hurt so much? It was only a graze, after all. She hadn't even gotten hit directly. Was she really this weak? Yes, yes she was. She forced herself not to make the same mistake that many soldiers made. Their mindset had overcome the limitations of their bodies. They had forgotten that they were still only human, that just one bullet could kill them, and that had lead to their deaths. She had to get help. She had to be found right away or she wouldn't live to see tomorrow.

She looked at the darkening sky. She would never see him again. She would die, die just like the piece of broken garbage her father had thrown away, not needed or wanted by anyone or anything. She fell face first into the snow. She looked down and watched as the snow around her turned red, watching her blood dye it a poisonous shade of crimson, watching as her life slowly poured out of her.

No, damn it no! This wasn't the end. She would live. She had to, especially now that she had a purpose. She would not let that old man win or get the best of her. She knew better than to move as she would just lose more and more blood.

She wondered if someone would find her before she died. She stared blankly into the snow, waiting for a change in the sound or to see a person. She saw a flash of red far away from her, moving extremely quickly, zooming across the snowy plain. Her eyesight blurred and went dark for a moment before focusing back. She heard voices, but they were gone before she could even cry out for help.

A pair of soft footsteps walked up to her.

"Really now, I leave you for several hours and this is what happens to you."

She reached out blindly towards the familiar voice, her vision blurring once again. Grell got down on his knees and took her hand.

"Just hang on for a tiny bit longer." He said. "Can you do that for me?"

"Yes" She whispered. Now that he was there, she was filled with more strength, and some sort of happiness. At least she mattered to someone. If she died, she wouldn't die alone. He was there for her, and she'd make sure she was there for him.

_Yes… I'll do anything you tell me to…_

He picked her up gently and carried her easily down to the base. This was getting just completely out of hand. She already couldn't spend several hours by herself without missing him and feeling lonely, yet she didn't notice those feelings until he was there and she felt them lift. They were just friends, weren't they? Were they?

She didn't know she was in for quite a few more surprises.


	9. not a chapter, video link

You people have GOT to see this video. It's me and my sister Cosplaying as William and Leah. We took so long trying to make this video. Please watch and enjoy. Chapter 9 will be up either tomorrow or the day after.

please type in the following without any spaces. I had to put spaces because my computer is being a stupid retard and is not registering the link.

http : / www. youtube . com/ watch? v=ZP x Z5 Q d CC es & feature = youtu. be

my apologies on behalf of my stupid computer. PLEASE WATCH IT!


	10. healing

Chapter 9: healing

He carefully carried her into the infirmary, down at the base, weaving around all the tanks that had been parked everywhere. There were two rooms used as infirmaries. One was completely full, so he took her to the other one, in which there were, only two other people. He set her down in an area that was on the other side of the room.

Jaymee contemplated her situation. She was saved, but who knew for how long? She was injured, and in such a place that it would be very difficult to keep the fact that she was a woman hidden among the rest of the soldiers. She relaxed as much as her wound would let her on the bed. She watched as Grell dragged a chair and sat down beside her.

It was odd. Having narrowly escaped death, all her senses had seemingly gone on overdrive, amplifying everything. She could feel her aura of death, the strong and menacing stench of fresh blood and the weight of many lives on her hands. But the strange thing was that this aura was being overshadowed by something else. Something much more powerful that was coming from… him. How was this even possible? She was the Red Princess. She, who had ended the lives of more than one thousand soldiers. She, who had killed enough equivalent to the population of a city. She, who had the highest killing record of anyone in the army, so how could it be possible that someone else could have a more powerful aura than her?

She put that thought behind her as the door to the infirmary crashed open.

"Knightwood, are you all right?" The Colonel ran in, with a doctor at his heels. "I heard that you were injured, so I sent for a doctor."

"Thank you" She said, clearing her throat. "I'm fine, it's just a little cut."

Grell tried really hard not to laugh. A little cut. She'd nearly died of blood loss because of it and she still called it 'a little cut'. He coughed several times to mask his laughter.

"Would you please recount what happened?" The doctor asked, sighing, like this was something he had to do every day. So she told him. "Well you're very lucky you're alive, young man. I'll need you to take your shirt off so that I can look at your wound."

He said, setting his medicine kit down on the table. Jaymee looked at Grell, her sky blue eyes filled with panic. _Help me, _she mouthed. She had to do it quickly, so she had no idea how well he understood, but he seemed to get it.

"So, Mr. Doctor. How much experience do you have in your field?" Grell asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not much" He admitted. "I've been practicing for half a year. I know it's not much but I'm the best we have at the moment."

"I beg to differ." Grell said flamboyantly. "I've been training for five years now. I don't really feel like trusting such a close friend to an amateur such as yourself. I do believe I can handle things from here."

The doctor shrugged, seeming slightly offended. He left; muttering something about that if Jaymee died it wasn't his fault any longer. Jaymee breathed out a sigh of relief.

"You're a life saver." She said.

"I know."

Grell dragged some curtains around her bed area, and without her noticing, scratched a few magical incantations into the walls around the curtains. It was something he learned from Leah. Having such a good spellcaster around did come with its benefits. Now, anything they said would be forgotten about in a few minutes. Since they weren't alone, such precautions were necessary. Now, Jaymee could approach any one of the patients and tell them she was a girl, tell them anything in the world. They would register what she was saying, but immediately forget what she said in the next minute without realizing, and would never remember it. He ducked back under the curtains.

"Nice lying" She said, smirking. "Now, do you actually know how to do any of this?"

"I guess I can remember a little bit of it." Grell said. He was starting to panic a little bit. He forced himself to calm down. How many times had he been beaten up, and how many times had Leah patched him back up again? He'd seen her do it, it wasn't that hard, but he was a Grim Reaper. She was a human, and therefore much, much more fragile.

Okay… first thing was to disinfect the cut and then stop the bleeding with several bandages. She carefully took off her uniform. The multiple layers of bandages she had put on to conceal her figure had stopped a little bit of the bleeding, but were still nowhere near the area that was injured the most. Her hand instinctively went to the ugly white scar on her stomach. She didn't want him to see it, much less ask about it.

She breathed out a small sigh of relief when he asked her to turn on her side. He hadn't seen it, and she wasn't really ready to disclose what had happened in her past that had made her get that scar, and why it was still so bright on her skin.

"This is going to hurt a little bit, so just bear with it for a little" He said. He offered her his hand and she gripped it so hard that he thought the circulation in his hand would cut off. Not that it was a problem, but the pins and needles feeling wasn't too pleasant. By the way she gritted her teeth, he knew that the disinfectant was working, but it must have been really painful.

"Ok, you're good as new." He said, smiling. She returned the smile weakly.

"If only…." She said. "I hope I'm back in shape for the next battle. They'll need me."

Seeing the worried look on his face, she laughed.

"Don't worry. I won't be so careless as to let this happen again." She said.

"You never know" He said seriously. It wasn't like him, Jaymee noted. Where was the flamboyant Grell she was used to?

"What's the matter?" She asked quietly.

"I care… quite a bit… for you, Jaymee." He admitted. "I don't want you to get hurt again. I guess I could compare you to a rose. A rose that's prettier than the rest. I don't want that rose to get picked and eventually die."

"I care quite a bit for you too, but this isn't going to happen again. I don't want to lose. This is like a competition for me. I'm fighting for my brother, for my family, and for you."

"You don't know how unpredictable death is." He said. "One minute, it might not look at you at all, and then the next it's staring you in the face. Just go home. Pretend that you're too hurt to fight any longer."

"Will we be able to be together after the war?" She wondered quietly. "I would like to see you again."

"I would too, but there's a big problem." He said.

"What is it?" She wondered. "Is it the fact that I'm a commoner? Will your friends not like me?"

"No, that's not it…" He hesitated, wondering how he was going to say this.

"Then what?"

"I… I'm not exactly a human being." He said, looking sideways. To his surprise and anger, she began to laugh. This was serious.

"Ha, that's a good joke." She said, laughing. "You're so funny, I thought that for a moment you were actually being serious…" Her smile faltered when she saw his serious expression. "Oh god, you're not joking, are you?"

He shook his head.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" She asked. "Did you hit your head somewhere, maybe get hurt? Do you need any help?" She started to say something else when he put a hand over her mouth.

"Please, just listen." He said.

He explained everything to her, from beginning to end. To prove his point, he materialized his chainsaw in and out of nothingness several times, and moved from one side of the bed to the other at blinding speeds.

"And that's it…" He said. Jaymee was silent. He tried to read her expression, but all he got was sadness. Why was she sad? He didn't get it.

"How old are you, Grell?" She asked.

"Twenty five" He answered automatically.

She shook her head. "That's in shinigami years. What's that number in human years?"

"Close to two thousand"

They were still holding hands. She took a look at them sadly.

"That means I'm only temporary to you." She said quietly. This took him aback.

"What do you mean?"

"In two hundred years, you're still going to look the way you do now, perfect." She whispered. "Meanwhile in a comparably short period of time, I'm going to get old. I'm going to die one way or another, possibly by your hand, definitely by that of another shinigami. In a couple of hundred years, you're going to forget I ever existed."

"That's not true" He said. "It doesn't have to be like that." He said. He hated her expression, the sad and wistful face, the incredibly large, incredibly beautiful blue eyes that had tightened slightly. She blinked up at him.

"Do you remember the friend I told you about, Leah?" She nodded. "I've been talking to her recently, and she says that there might be a chance for you to become one of us. You can get rid of your old life, you can forget about any problems you ever had and come be with us." He said all of this in a rush, hoping to get her favour.

For a second, her expression remained the same, shattering his hopes. But then she smiled, so brightly and happily that he was taken aback.

"You really do care" She whispered happily. He reached down and hugged her.

"I always have, darling"


	11. that soldier, planning her escape

**I feel like I'm going on idea overdrive at the moment. One of the better after effects of writers block. So hopefully I can keep up writing longer chapters like this one. Hurray for holidays. I can probably update faster now during Easter . ^^ enjoy**

Chapter 10: That soldier, planning her escape

A month had gone by, and Jaymee's bullet wound was healing rather quite nicely. She had been out of the infirmary for several weeks now, rehabilitating herself to training and working around with all the other soldiers. Her spirits were high. As soon as they would get remobilized, she and Grell would escape. She'd never have to fight in another war again. She wasn't too worried about the rest of her family. If her body was never found, they would know that she was alive.

A little bit ago, Jaymee's name had appeared in black on the to die list, saying that she would die at the battle of Passchendale. However, she was not going to be fighting in the battle of Passchendale thanks to Grell's warning. She was a little bit worried for him, seeing as she was a soul he had failed to collect.

She had been laying out her escape plan for a little while now with Grell. When the mobilization day came, she would stop cross dressing and actually dress like a woman again. She would go up to the guards and ask to see her 'twin brother' Jaime Knightwood to wish him good luck in the upcoming battle. While she was talking to them, Grell would go and take her things from her tent. The guard would probably then send someone to look for her. Seeing as they would not find her, they would probably assume she was in the barracks, getting ready.

Jaymee would then apologize for the trouble and walk away with Grell, breaking the law effectively and easily without anyone knowing she had just walked away from the battlefield against the Queen's orders.

"Hey Colonel" She said, walking towards him.

"Hello Knightwood. How have you been doing so far?"

"Good" She said quietly. "Would you mind telling me when our next mobilization date is?"

"That would be most likely tomorrow" He said. She pretended to be panicked. "What's the matter?"

"My family came here to see me. I promised that I'd go see them."

"That's fine." He said, waving a hand. "Take as much time as you want, as long as you're back right when we start to move."

"Thanks, Colonel"

"By the way, Knightwood, we'd like to take your picture for the museum of war. And please, after the picture, cut your hair. You look like a woman."

"I would have done so earlier, but there are no scissors around." She pointed out. It was true, her hair had grown that it was midway between her shoulders and her chin. It was incredibly long for guy hair, and yet almost indecently short for woman's hair. However, it was still acceptable in both regions.

"Ah yes, well we'll get to that. Could you please stand outside?"

X-x-x-x-X

"Jeez…" Jaymee complained to Grell as they walked out of the campus. "I'm glad they didn't force me to cut my hair. I don't see the problem anyway."

"So how did the photo shoot go?" He asked, grinning.

"Horribly" She said. "I wasn't allowed to smile."

"Maybe that's a good thing, though" Grell pointed out, taking a piece of her hair and playing with it. "You look enough like a girl already." Jaymee sighed.

"I wonder how many people are going to look at my picture in several decades and go 'wow that guy really looks like a woman' and actually be right." He snorted.

"Probably quite a few" He agreed, smirking.

"So where are we going? The shinigami world?" She asked hopefully.

"Hell no! They don't let humans into the shinigami world. They'd kill you on sight. We've got to wait to get Leah's permission before we can turn you into a shinigami, and before you can meet everyone I know."

"So where are we going then?"

"There's a very small cottage on the outskirts of town. The owners are on vacation at the moment and won't be back until a month from now. We can use it for now."

"Won't they notice if we use the place?"

"Which is why we're using the attic"

"The attic" She repeated.

"Would you prefer going downstairs where the lights will be visible and everyone will know that someone's in there?"

"Not particularly."

"Exactly."

"Can't you just use some sort of spell to cover the windows?" Jaymee asked.

"The scratch marks are going to be in the glass permanently." He said.

"Well, crap."

After an hour of walking, she was already starting to complain. Part of it was to annoy him on purpose, and part of it was because her army boots were really uncomfortable. To her, high heels would feel like a luxury.

"Argh, will you stop complaining already?" He asked as they walked through the forest. He tripped and nearly fell over a dead tree. She giggled. He took a pile of autumn leaves and threw them into her hair.

"Oh no you didn't!" She grabbed an even bigger pile and threw them at him. He danced out of the way and tickled the side of her neck with a leaf. She twitched and he started laughing until she put leaves over the lenses of his glasses. Pretty soon, both of them were sitting in the leaves, completely covered in them, laughing their heads off. Jaymee hadn't felt this good in what felt like years now.

Pretty soon, they reached the little cabin in the woods. As it was still bright outside, they could move around without any problems. They sat on the nice couch. It was even smaller than when Grell's house had been a semi-detached. There was only one bedroom, only one bathroom, three other rooms and otherwise, very compact. She pulled a leaf out of his hair and waved it teasingly in front of his face. He snatched it away from her.

"I've just seen one problem." She said. "How are we going to get a dress?" She wondered.

"The owner's probably around your height and size. I doubt she'll notice if we take just one dress."

"You really don't have any problems with stealing, do you"

"Not really, since these people are human."

"By the way, when you were saying that there are problems in the shinigami world at the moment, what are those problems?" She asked.

"Well, there's recently been a breach of security in hell, and a whole bunch of prisoners escaped back into the world of the living. They're causing a lot of problems for us at the moment. If they're not stopped and sent back, the entire balance of life and death might be upset."

"I see." She said. "I'm guessing that once you're dead, you're not that easy to kill a second time."

He nodded. "But that just means more work for me. I promise I'll help once I become a shinigami." She smiled. He returned the smile, however it wasn't exactly genuine. He didn't know she wanted to be in the dispatch department. He thought that she'd become someone in the general affairs department, perhaps. But then again, she wasn't ordinary, and he shouldn't have thought that she would have wanted an ordinary position.

He climbed up into the attic and began setting the protective enchantments that Leah had taught him, meanwhile she grabbed a hairbrush, some makeup from the counted and raided the closet in the bedroom, looking for the nicest dress possible. She wanted something pink or red, something that she would be entirely unrecognizable in. Of course, there were no red dresses, but she found a light lavender one with pink highlights. She held it up to herself. It was ankle length, form fitting from the waist up, with long sleeves. The hemline was square. She was always partial to those. The hem, the sleeves and the waist of the dress were a light silver color. It was perfect, though she didn't really like the color pink.

She took everything upstairs, where Grell had already finished everything. The attic wasn't as dusty as she had expected, so it wasn't too bad. The sky was already darkening. He took off his coat and threw it onto a nearby dresser, along with his vest and bow, and kicked off his high heels.

"Huh, so you're not actually that tall without them." She said. The high heels gave him roughly two inches of height, so instead of being five foot ten or something, he was only five foot seven. It was less of a height difference between them, at least. She was only roughly five foot four, and no longer had to look up to see his face. He fell back on the mattress and put his hands behind his head.

"It's getting late, darling. You need to sleep. Women don't show up with dark circles under their eyes."

"It's called make up." She said. He sighed.

"When was the last time you had more than 4 hours of sleep at a time?"

"A while back" She admitted. She had to agree that after sleeping in trenches, the mattress did look very comfortable. She settled down beside him and he threw a blanket over her.

"See, not so bad"

She nodded in agreement and then fell asleep against the warm comforters. Tomorrow would be a big day. She might even get to be a shinigami by the light of tomorrow morning. She hoped that was going to be the case. Surprisingly, she couldn't wait for her old life to end. Was it because there was too much trauma? She didn't know, but she was quite happy about the prospects of her new life.

If only she knew that it wouldn't be as simple as she thought.


	12. confrontations

Chapter 11: confrontations

Early that morning, Jaymee woke up and walked downstairs, a pair of scissors in hand. Today, she was actually going to give some sort of form to her hair, and cut it a little more evenly. Honestly, who had heard of a girl with choppy, messy and dirty hair? She took a shower, and had to refill the bath three times with all the dirt that had come out of her hair. She was surprised how light blonde her hair actually was after it being so dark because of the dirt for so long. She cut it into a bob, shorter at the back and longer at the front.

Her hand shook as she tried to apply the makeup. She hadn't done this in so long that she had forgotten what and how. Nevertheless, she managed to do her eyes and eyebrows with a straight hand. She didn't like to put on blush, because of all the harmful stuff in it (~A/N: keep in mind it's the early 20th century! They had lead in their makeup back then. Yikes. ~)But she put it on anyway.

Her face felt unnaturally heavy with all the makeup, and it felt slightly weird to walk in the high heeled button up white boots, but she got used to it easily. She took all the annoying bandages off and put on a little of perfume. She slid the dress over her head and took a look at herself in the mirror. Something was missing… She took a lavender ribbon and tied it in her hair. There we go.

The image she saw in the mirror was so drastically changed; she couldn't even believe she was the same person. If she was fully honest with herself, it actually felt quite nice to be back in women's clothing. She grabbed the deep purple overcoat, which she thought was the fanciest thing she'd ever worn since almost a decade back. She adjusted the high collar and was eternally thankful that the sleeves of the pink dress were plain and easy to hide. The coat was only several inches shorter than the actual dress and parted at the waist to expose the front of the dress in a triangle like piece. She couldn't reach the dark purple bow at the back, though. She'd get Grell to tie it for her.

She put the white gloves over her hands and walked up the stairs to the attic, her high heels making clunking noises on the stairs. Grell was already up, removing all of the magical enchantments that he had put over the attic. He looked up as she walked in.

"Good morning" She smiled and did an experimental twirl. "How do I look?"

_Absolutely beautiful… _he wanted to say, but he was completely speechless. He hadn't known that it would be such a drastic difference. But it was a good difference. She was nearly twice as beautiful now.

"You look amazing" He said, finally regaining his ability to speak.

"Could you tie the bow for me?" She asked turning around.

"Sure" He carefully fixed the bow. He noticed how thin she was, nearly abnormally thin. He needed to get some food into her. She looked like if he bent her arm or touched her in the slightest bit, she'd snap. Of course, she wasn't that fragile, but she sure looked like it without the sniper rifle and the bulky ammo cases she wore all the time.

"Shall we get going?" She asked. "It's eleven at the moment; I think they're getting ready to leave."

"All right" They left the house looking exactly as it did before. "Do you know what you want to take with you?"

"All I want is my sniper rifle. You can dump the rest in a river." She said, shrugging her shoulders. "Everything else is bullets and some other stuff I won't need."

He snorted. "Of course, 'my lady'" She twitched and he laughed.

They set off towards the camp. He carried her most of the time so that she wouldn't get tired. Any difference could make the guards suspicious. What kind of woman would walk for hours? Pretty soon, they got to the camp grounds. Grell set her down on her feet and she walked up the hill until she was in viewpoint of the guards.

_I hope they don't recognize me… _she thought as she approached them.

"Madam, this is a military zone. Only soldiers are allowed past this point." The guard said.

"Could you please tell me if this is a British base?" She asked.

"Yes it is."

"I was only hoping to talk to my brother for a minute." She said, fiddling with a strand of her hair and looking up at him shyly like many girls did. She felt so stupid! Thankfully it seemed to work. "You know, it's his last battle and all, I'd like to wish him good luck."

"Fine, who's your brother?" The guard asked, fighting back a blush. She fought back laughter as she watched his face change colours.

"Jaime Knightwood."

"Ah, yes. Come to think of it, you do look like him a little bit. I'll send people to look for him."

And so she waited for the guard to return. She fought back a smirk as she heard the soldiers who were walking around yelling out her name. They hadn't suspected the slightest thing. After fifteen minutes, the guard came back.

"We can't seem to find him, my lady. He's probably in the barracks at this point."

She pretended to look sad.

"All right then, I'll just wait until he comes back home then. Thank you so much for your trouble."

"No, it wasn't any trouble, miss. If you wouldn't mind telling me your name so that I could say that you came by?"

_What a creeper. _

"Maria. Maria Knightwood" She used her middle name, which was also her mother's name. She felt a little guilty for using it, but it was the only thing she could say without him noticing her pause.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss Maria. I will inform Lord Knightwood of your arrival." She tried curtseying. She nearly stumbled, but he didn't notice anything.

"Thank you so much." And she turned on her heel and walked away. The plan had gone perfectly, down to the slightest little detail. She met Grell at the tree line, who handed Jaymee her sniper rifle. She took the rifle in one hand, took his hand in the other and both of them ran up the hill as far away as they could from the camp, laughing the entire way.

They climbed a hill and looked down at the vast expanse of land. She was free at last. She breathed in the fresh air, feeling oddly light and happy. She felt above the world. Soon she would be above the world, in a completely different dimension.

"So what happens now?" She asked happily, turning to Grell.

"That's a very good question." An unfamiliar voice said behind them. Grell's eyes went wide.

"William!"

Jaymee turned around and stared at the man who had apparently materialized out of nowhere. He wore a black suit, a pair of black gloves and had dark brown hair. Like Grell, he wore glasses and had the bright yellow-green double irises of the shinigami. He carried some sort of metallic object under his arm and in his other held a book.

She felt a twinge of fear once she saw what was written on the book: to-die. He had come to kill her.

"Dispatch Officer Grell Sutcliff" William said. "You have failed to collect a soul on the battlefield of Passchendale."

"Um yes, well about that…"

"Would you care to explain why you are with the particular soul you are supposed to kill?" William's icy gaze seemed to harden even more, if that was possible. Grell sensed that there was trouble, and took a step in front of Jaymee protectively.

"Um well… you see there were a few complications…"

"You don't bring your feelings into your job, Grell Sutcliff." He sighed. "Honestly… this is like Madam Red all over again with your stupid emotions."

Grell bristled. "Stupid? Are you calling your feelings for Leah stupid?" He was surprised by his anger. He never got angry at William. However, this was different. What a hypocrite. Even after finding the woman of his dreams, he was still as cold as ever to others.

"Don't bring my wife into this."

"Don't act like an idiot then!"

"Very well" William sighed. "If you refuse to kill her, then I will have to do it myself."

The chainsaw clanged against the hedge clippers with a metallic screeching noise. William's death scythe retracted. Grell had thrown himself in front of Jaymee, one of his arms spread protectively in front of her, the other holding his chainsaw.

"Get out of the way" He said.

"No"

"You will move, or I will demote you once again."

"No"

"My patience is wearing thin, Grell Sutcliff. Move this instant."

"I told you, no!"

The air was tense. Jaymee grabbed her bayonet and pointed it over Grell's shoulder at William's face. She knew it wouldn't kill him as he was an immortal, but she figured a bullet to the face wouldn't feel too good.

The air right beside William seemed to shimmer. There was a noise like someone ripping a piece of fabric, and a hole opened in the air right beside him. A woman stepped out of the hole, her long curly amber blonde hair rippling behind her. She was so beautiful that Jaymee nearly paled with jealousy. Her large yellow green eyes were kind, and shone with some sort of sadness, and power. Her aura was the strongest Jaymee had ever felt, stronger than William's and even Grell's.

"Leah" William looked over at her. She walked closer to him and put her hand on his arm. She whispered something into his ear. William's death scythe fell to the ground, his eyes wide.

"Are you serious?" He asked. She nodded. He picked up his death scythe. His entire demeanour had seemed to change. He bowed in Jaymee's direction.

"Well, this seems to change things rather significantly. My apologies Miss" He said to Jaymee. Grell relaxed and put his death scythe away. "Let's go home, Leah."

The woman at his side smiled. For the first time, Jaymee noticed the silver ring on her finger. Right as they were about to leave, she spoke for the first time, leaving Jaymee even more jealous as her voice was so pretty.

"I hope you two don't mind staying in the human world for a little longer." She said. "We have some papers to sort out before she can become one of us."

"Yeah, no problem, Lee-lee" Grell said. Leah smiled quietly.

"Do teach her some basic defence skills and some spells, will you? You don't know what ghosts are wandering around at the moment. I'd hate for her to get hurt the moment she comes into the shinigami realm."

"Of course"

Leah walked forwards and hugged Grell quickly.

"Be careful." She smiled.

"I will."

With that, she took William's hand and they walked into the portal together. Jaymee breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Is that what all the rest of you shinigami are like?" She asked worriedly.

"Leah's actually one of the nicest shinigami anyone will ever meet." He said bluntly.

"Well then… I hope no one else tries to kill me…" She said.

She would have to correct her statement soon.


	13. Madam Red

Chapter 12: Madam Red

"So, according to Leah, we've got two days." Grell said. Jaymee sighed in relief.

"That's not so long." They walked around Belgium, not really doing anything, just sightseeing. "Since we've got two days, how about I show you around my town? I don't live that far away from London. I can show you everything I do on a daily basis."

"That sounds great! Hey, can I meet your family?"

"Um… I'm not sure about that one." She said, looking sideways. This was going to be awkward.

"Don't you have to go say goodbye to them anyway?"

"I guess… but my family isn't as tolerant of weirdness as I am. My brother will probably take one look at you and punch you in the face. Just saying"

"You'd think they'd be pretty accustomed to weirdness, having you around"

"Hey!"

"What, it's true! Anyway, the weird part isn't a problem. I act amazingly well. I was born for the spotlight! So I doubt it will be a problem disguising myself."

"Okay then, how are you going to disguise yourself?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. She was really interested how he would pull this off. He grinned and took his glasses off and put on circular rimless glasses. He put on a plain black coat, ran a comb through his hair until it changed his hair colour to brown and tied it back with a ribbon.

"How's this?" He asked.

"Surprisingly, you look like a wimp"

"That's the point, darling"

"I hope you'll be able to change your personality as much as you just changed your appearance."

"Once again, I am amazing at acting"

"It might take us a day to get there, I hope you realize that." She said as they started walking.

"More like a few hours" Grell said as he scooped her up in his arms before she even had a chance to protest. He jumped onto a building seemingly effortlessly and began running with her at speeds she'd never thought were possible. She was excited and yet scared at the fact that soon she'd be able to run like this as well.

"We're in London" Grell announced.

"Holy crap, you do run fast" She said and he started laughing.

"Okay, can you see your house from here?"

"Move more to the outskirts of the village" She said, completely unsure of why she was agreeing to this. She really hoped her brother took to Grell kindly. It wasn't that she was worried for Grell; she was worried for her brother. She didn't know what would happen to him if he dared attack an immortal being. She got away with throwing stuff at Grell always, because they were close friends. She didn't know how he would react to Andrew, however. "That's it. The one with the whitewashed fence"

He landed carefully and quietly. The lights were on in the house. She walked up to the door with Grell at her heels and knocked twice on the door. She noticed that his posture had changed. He was now giving off a shy and quiet demeanour. Huh… she guessed that he really was good at this.

The door opened, and a thin greying woman stood there, her kitchen apron in her hands. Her eyes widened and she pulled Jaymee into a tight hug.

"It's so nice to see you, darling!"

"It's nice to see you too, mom."

"Don't just stand there, come inside! Who's that behind you?" She asked as she caught sight of Grell.

"Oh, that's my… er… fiancé" She glanced at Grell. "Well, let's just say we've got a lot to talk about."

"Andrew just got home." Her aunt said, closing the door behind them both. "He'll be so happy to see you, Jay."

"I'll be happy to see him too" Jaymee said as she put her boots and coat on the rack and straightened out the silver collar of her dress. To her right was the old wooden table, just as she remembered it. Her old crystal necklace lay there, untouched. She quietly put it on, her fingers closing around the cold metal.

"Andrew!" She called up the stairs. "There's someone here to see you!"

"It can wait!" The voice yelled back.

"I'm sure you'll want to see her!"

At this, there were several heavy footsteps and some muttering as a guy with messy blonde hair walked down the stairs. The resemblance between him and Jaymee was pretty great. Andrew however, had brown eyes and not blue like hers. Jaymee ran up and hugged Andrew as he caught sight of her. They hugged quickly before she stepped away.

"Oh yeah, Grell, this is my brother Andrew Knightwood, and my mother Lacy Clark. Mom, Andrew, this is my fiancé Grell Sutcliff"

"I-it's nice to meet you" Grell stammered. He really was doing a good job. They looked completely fooled. Andrew quickly shook Grell's hand and turned to Jaymee.

"Jay, I didn't know you were back"

"I am" She said.

"Isn't the war still going on, though?" He asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Yeah, that's what I wanted to talk about. Shall we all sit down?" She asked, gesturing to the dining table. They all sat and waited.

"You see, a little while ago, I got hurt in the war. I got shot, but I recovered. I still didn't feel up to fighting, but they made me since I seemed to be walking just fine." She began.

"You got shot and lived? You're not as much of a weakling as I thought, little sis"

"Don't call me 'sis. Either way, I knew that if I fought in the last battle, I would die. So I snuck away and came home. But I can't stay here forever. If the Queen finds out that I walked away from the battlefield, she'll investigate me and find out I'm a girl. I'll get arrested if I stay here. This is why I came, to say goodbye. My fiancé and I," she glanced at Grell ", plan to move to a different colony under the power of the French so we're not found. I hope you understand that we'll never be able to visit again."

Both of her family members were silent for a while. Finally, her aunt nodded.

"Do whatever you think is right, child. I'd hate for you to get caught in jail. You know we want the best for you, Jay."

It hurt to lie, but they'd think she was crazy if she told them the truth. Grell just sat there, saying absolutely nothing. He was actually doing pretty well. Andrew frowned at Grell, who looked down.

"So you're saying you picked this wimp over all the other guys out there?"

"He's the best" She said defensively. "He gave up his job with the Queen to be with me."

"If you say so" Andrew shrugged.

"You'll at least be able to write to us once in a while, won't you?" Her aunt asked.

"I'll try. There won't be a return address, I hope you realize"

"Of course, dear"

They talked for a little while after. They were made to stay the night, however. While Andrew and her 'mother' were asleep, she and Grell trained on the rooftops. He taught her how to use some defence tactics that Leah was talking about, one of which turned out better than expected.

One of the very first ideas was have Grell pretend to stab her, and then she would make her cinematic record come out at will. Then they discovered that she could actually manipulate the strands of her cinematic record and could stab through things relatively easily using those strands. And so the idea changed to both use of defence and attack. She was actually rather good at it.

Morning came, and they said goodbye to her family for the last time. It was hard for Jaymee, but she did it and they left. She made her mind permanently remember their faces like she had remembered her actual birth mother's face. She would never forget any of them.

They walked around the city and she showed him all of her favourite places.

"We'll come back and visit" He promised. A sudden light made him look up. His to-die list had materialized. "Hmm… there's a soul I have to take in that abandoned building right there."

"Well, let's get going then. I'd like to see how hard it is to take a soul" She said.

They walked into the building. It was dark, with barely any light shining through the boarded up windows. Suddenly, something moved out of the shadows. A flash of silver caught Grell's eye. The figure moved into the light, and he felt a horrible sense of recognition as the red high heels clacked onto the floor. The chin length red hair flowed around her face like flames.

He took a step back as the sad red eyes tightened as they registered him.

"Madam…" He whispered in shock.

**Sorry for the cliff hanger! Eh heh… ^_^" please kill me later. Yes, Madam Red has appeared, as one of the escapees from hell. -_-**

**I'm a little bit out of sorts for this one, so I don't know what she should do. So I'm going to leave it here. Possibly until tomorrow, possibly until the day after, I don't know. But do get ready for a lot of excitement and a lot of fighting! :D **


	14. panic

Chapter 13: Panic

Madam Red's eyes seemed to harden as she looked at Grell. She stepped a little further into the light. The silver thing she was carrying was what looked like an elongated scalpel. It scared the crap out of Jaymee, but thankfully Madam Red didn't seem to see her as Grell was shielding her from view.

"Why?" She asked. Her high heels clacked on the floor. She wore the same thing as she had the night she died. There was a large dark hole in the middle of her chest.

"What do you mean, why? I did you a favour" Grell snapped, all the surprise flooding out of him, leaving only disappointment and anger.

"You call killing the woman you loved a favour?" she asked. A shiver ran down Jaymee's spine as an unfamiliar voice in her head began to whisper in her ear. _Angelina Durless-Barnett, Madam Red, Jack the Ripper. It's the same person. _She had no idea how she knew, or where the voice came from. All she knew was that this woman was back from the dead and dangerous. The last murder Jack the Ripper had made had been almost forty years ago.

"You disappointed me, Madam. That was all that mattered. If I didn't kill you, he would have put you in prison."

"You wouldn't have known that." Her eyes tightened again. "Why are you wearing my coat?"

"You don't deserve to wear the colour red. That's all there is to it." Grell said.

"If I'm not fit to wear red, neither are you!"

She lunged towards him and slashed at him with the scalpel. His chainsaw connected with it, but somehow didn't break it. She moved it out of the way before the chainsaw could slice it straight in half. "Unfortunately for you, I've learned quite a few new tricks." She said as she twisted around and tried to stab him. He jumped backwards.

"You think you can kill a god?" Grell asked, looking at her in disdain.

"I've killed a demon. I believe I can do much more than that."

She slashed at him and he jumped out of the way, pushing Jaymee out of harm's way. Madam Red's burning eyes widened as she registered the girl's slight figure. Then her eyes narrowed and her upper lip curled into a sneer.

"So you move on this quickly?" She asked Grell, dodging the chainsaw.

"It's been nearly forty years." He said. "What did you expect?"

"Oh I don't know" She said with a hint of sarcasm. "You didn't have to kill me, you know. You could have turned me into a shinigami. It would have been the same. No one would have found me."

"You showed your true colours that night. None of those colours were red. If they're not red, I refuse to put up with you for the rest of eternity."

"But you pick yet another girl! Her aura of death is quite powerful, but do you think she's any different than me? Are you going to throw her away just like you threw me away?"

"No. She's different. She's someone I'm willing to give anything up for."

"Even your life?" She asked as she lunged towards Jaymee.

There was a sickening crunch as she ran Grell straight through with the scalpel. What a surprise. She hadn't expected him to jump in her way.

"Hmph. So you did care about her. Either way, your efforts were useless." She said as she retracted the scalpel and Grell fell to the floor. "I'm going to deal with her now."

How many times had Jaymee seen someone die? How many times had she watched nearly the same thing happen again and again? Yet somehow when it was someone she knew it was twice as shocking and twice as painful. She could only hope that she could get rid of Madam Red and he was still alive by the time she did it.

She knew she had to concentrate as Madam moved closer to her. To summon her cinematic record, she had to recreate the feelings of being on the brink of death. With a huge scalpel looming over her, it wasn't too hard. Madam seemed to pause, studying her for just a minute.

"You look so fragile. I can't believe he would have chosen someone as weak as you"

"And you're saying that you weren't weak?" Jaymee asked, standing up to full height. Jaymee was shorter than her by two inches at least, but Madam Red seemed to take a step back as if Jaymee towered over her.

"How dare you"

"I dare" She replied quietly. Her cinematic record slowly started to unroll.

"Well then it will be the end of you!" Madam shrieked and ran towards her. At least ten cinematic record strands shot towards her. They wrapped around her arms and legs and kept her in place. Jaymee closed her eyes and concentrated. It was extremely unpleasant, but she managed to remember the worst memories in her life, and concentrate them into three strands of her cinematic record. These promptly glowed black. These were the ones that could cut anything extremely well.

They soared towards her and stabbed her. The scalpel clattered to the ground as she struggled. She managed to break free and skittered several steps backwards. Jaymee's cinematic record swirled around her menacingly.

"I've got more where those came from." She said, and took a step forwards.

"You don't understand." Madam said. "Once he's bored with you, he'll kill you like he killed me."

"I think it's you who doesn't understand." Jaymee said quietly. "I'll speak for both of us when I say this. There are no beings on this planet that are perfect. Shinigami aren't perfect. They're much closer to perfect than humans are, but that doesn't mean they don't make mistakes. And _you are the biggest mistake of his life_. You are much harder to kill now because you are nothing but a hardened soul. However, Grell taught me the spell to destroy a soul." She bluffed. She had no idea whether such a spell even existed, but apparently it did, as Madam took yet another step back. "And I will use it on you if I have to. Get out of here and leave. Never show your face again to me, for if you do, it won't be a face any longer." She spat, her voice full of venom.

"Suit yourself, girl, but don't be surprised when I am right." Madam disappeared into darkness. The strands of Jaymee's cinematic record scanned the perimeter of the room, as she was worried that Madam hadn't left but had turned invisible. After being fully satisfied, her cinematic record stopped rolling and she dropped to Grell's side.

She'd never felt this much panic before. Especially once she saw that he wasn't breathing. She felt for a heartbeat, but there was none. His white shirt was spattered with crimson blood. Her face went white as a sheet. _Oh my god… what do I do? _She tried to remember her first aid training, but all the thoughts seemed to be scattered inside her head. CPR? It was worth a try, though she had no idea if it would work on a shinigami or not.

Her lips hesitantly touched his. Then she felt his face break into a smile. His arms wound around her and he pulled himself into a sitting position, still not breaking the unexpected kiss. She pulled away and put her head on his shoulder, suppressing laughter.

"Honestly, you're unbearable. Do you know you just about gave me a heart attack?"

"Well aware, darling" He grinned.

She sighed. "I don't know whether to hug you or hit you at this moment."

"I'll go with a hug." He said, laughing. "You should have known that it's not necessary for us to breathe, and that I would have fully used a situation like this to my favour."

"Jeez…" She couldn't say anything more, and just shook her head.

"Either way, the only two things that can kill a shinigami is another shinigami's death scythe or a disease called the thorns of death. That thing was neither, so it didn't do me any permanent damage."

"You're such a jerk, you know that right?"

"So I've been told" He said, still smiling. "I think you've earned a little glimpse of my cinematic record. I still haven't told you much about me, have I?"

He held out his hand, and she took it carefully. Their hands connected in a bright white light.

**OK! Next chapter will be almost or entirely from Grell's point of view. I'm still not sure whether to bring Madam back into the story or not, but she will appear again eventually, I believe. Jaymee didn't kill her, so she's still alive and plotting somewhere… ahonhonhonhonhonhon… ^^**


	15. Grell's cinematic record

Chapter 14

_I was born into a high ranking family of pureblood shinigami. It's like the human equivalent of nobility. Our dimension is split into two cities, the blue city and the green city. Back then, right smack in the middle of those two cities were the eighth and ninth districts, where all the pureblood shinigami lived. I never saw the eighth district, because it got completely destroyed before I could even remember what it looked like. Times were tough, as we were caught in a war, but we survived well. All the pureblood families were very close knit except for those who liked to distance themselves from others. Which is how I met her._

_Our parents had been best friends, as had been our grandparents. We were all as close as family. I still like to think of Leah as my sister. I remember the first time we met, she hit me over the head with the book she was reading and told me never to go near her again. But of course, I won her favour eventually, and we became best friends just like our parents. The ongoing war wasn't too hard on us. We still managed to go everywhere._

_Even though I was a year older, it was Leah who always knew how to do everything before I did. I always appreciated how she managed to move around so easily. She knew all the secret passages to go absolutely everywhere. Her telekinesis powers had allowed her to dig anywhere into anything, and she used it to her advantage. In my eyes, she was beautiful, smart and powerful. She was perfect to me. _

_We were in our mid-teens, and every day, there was always something new to learn about her. I couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. I fell in love with her. I was going to ask her to go on a date with me, but everything went wrong before I could. Nearly everyone in district nine died suddenly and violently, including both our families. I had to completely forget about any and every romantic emotion I'd ever had for her so that I could care for her like an older brother would to his little sister. _

_I have no idea what made me get to this point. I feel like watching so much death at a time made me go insane. Many people react to death in different ways after seeing it the first time. Some people fear it and hate it. They can't stand to even hear the word. Others become indifferent to it like Leah did and others like me become obsessed with death. _

_I shouldn't have been so angry when she fell in love with William. I couldn't help but be jealous. When she first met William, they hated each other. She couldn't look him in the eye without wanting to break something. Eventually, they came to love each other, and they left me completely on my own. The two people I loved had grown to love each other and forget about me entirely. _

_Yet I made myself believe that if she was happy, so was I. In a way, I was happy for them. I attended their wedding with a smile on my face. I feel like such a hypocrite at times. I always tell people to be happy for love, but yet I'm always angry every time I look at the ring on her finger. At first I felt like it was wrong, but at this point, I'm beyond caring. _

_And then there was Madam Red, the woman you just saw. I was assigned to take the souls of the people she murdered. When I first saw her, she reminded me so much of Leah that I couldn't take my eyes off her. They even looked something alike as well. They had the same triangular bangs, large sad eyes that had the same determination, and the same anger and hate. There were similarities between myself and Madam Red as well. _

_Both of us loved someone who would never love us back, and both of us had been taught to love the colour red by that specific person. Likewise, those people had never known that we loved them, and it wasn't like they would have cared either way. I never really loved her. All I saw when I looked into her eyes was a false image of Leah._

_She messed up on the night of her last murderer. That was when the image shattered, and I saw her for who she really was. She was weak, and unable to make any choices. I was so disappointed in her that I killed her. She ended up to be nothing to me. I had tried to find a replacement for Leah, and of course, Madam hadn't done the trick. Like you said, Jay, it was a stupid mistake that I never should have made._

_But you're different to me. I can't put into words how happy I am that I met you… okay, I probably can, but it would take forever. You are different from both Leah and Madam Red, and I like that difference. It's a very nice change, and I don't want you to feel like you're not good enough. I feel that this was the right choice, and that you are going to be more than I ever hoped for once you become a shinigami. It's a little hard to imagine, seeing as I can't see you being more perfect than you already are. _

_Story of my life… it's not all that exciting, but at least you know everything about me now and how I think, which might creep you out a little bit, but hopefully not much. I also want you to remember that no matter what you do, you are perfect to me._

_X-x-x-x-x-x-x-X_

The light faded quickly. They were still holding hands. Jaymee looked up at him, and he smiled. She returned the smile quietly. She was also covered in blood now, but she didn't care, as her coat was black. She laughed.

"I guess it's my turn to patch you up now." She said as she got out several bandages from her pocket and put them into his hands. He started laughing until she clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Now would be a good idea to use that not-breathing thing you were talking about. You don't want any more air to get into that cut."

The sun rose slowly and the abandoned factory room began to get lighter. She was shocked at how quickly he had healed. Within several hours, he was back on his feet as if nothing had happened. He had been pierced straight through with a scalpel, and she had been only slightly grazed with a bullet, yet his recovery time had been nearly eight times as fast as hers had been.

The coming of dawn reminded her of something important. Two days had passed. These were her last few hours as a human being. Soon, she'd be ready to join the world of the supernatural, the world of the gods. In a way she couldn't wait, and in a way she was kind of scared. Would it hurt to get converted into a shinigami? What was the process? How would all of this go? She had no choice but to wait and find out.

**Chapter 14 end! XDDD**

**Anyway, I will be trying my hand at animation really soon. This chapter made me think of a REALLY good idea. Lately my twin has dragged me into vocaloid, and I have to say I'm addicted now! This chapter reminds me of Luka Megurine's song Just be Friends, and I was thinking about how it fit Grell and Leah so well. SO I'll be trying to animate to this. I'm not a really good drawer, nor is my sister an experienced animator. So please don't expect too much from it, but I will post it up when it's done.**

**~darkironprincess17**


	16. the shinigami world

Chapter 15: The shinigami world

They walked out of the abandoned building.

"Are you ready?" Grell asked with his Cheshire cat grin.

"As ready as I'll ever be." She sighed. "I hope the process won't be painful."

"It depends." Grell said. "There is a little bit of fighting involved"

"Wonderful. Did I tell you I'm doomed if I fight hand to hand combat?"

"You won't be in the same body anymore." Grell said as he got out his death scythe. "The papers have all been filled out, so you can enter the shinigami world without any problems." The chainsaw slashed through the air. It seemed to connect with something invisible before breaking through it. It opened a hole in the air. Grell offered Jaymee his hand and she took it. They jumped through the portal into the realm of the shinigami.

X-x-x-x-x-X

It wasn't what she expected, yet it totally took her by surprise. The sky was pure blue, without a single cloud anywhere to be found. The houses and the roofs were all light blue, sharply contrasting with the rocky ground. Dominating the scene was a huge building, bigger than a castle. Grell saw Jaymee staring.

"That's the Library of Cinematic Records." He said. "It's where we keep all the cinematic records ever collected. It still needs expanding." He added. "I hope I don't have to take part in that."

They walked down the streets of blue houses.

"So where are we going?"

"We need to go to Leah's house to tell her you're here."

Various shinigami were walking down the streets. When they saw Jaymee, they tilted their heads curiously and started muttering amongst themselves, nudging and elbowing each other and covertly glancing in her direction. However, she had a higher aura of death than they did, and she could silence them with just one look.

"Can we hurry up? I feel like a circus animal put on display." She grumbled.

"We're nearly there."

Pretty soon, they reached another light blue house. This house was different in the way that the curtains were other colors and not blue. No sooner had Grell walked up to the door; he took a few steps back as a very loud, very angry female voice sounded from the inside of the house.

"WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THIS CRAP?" The voice yelled, followed by a large crash that sounded conspicuously like some sort of desk or closet falling on its side. Jaymee was so surprised that she took a step back. Her first impression of Leah had been a kind, very quiet woman who didn't talk much. Apparently she was quite mistaken in the quiet sense of the word. Leah sounded just plain angry, and it made her scared to go inside the house. Grell, however, laughed to himself.

"William and Leah are usually always within one step of one another. When he's not here, she's generally in a really bad mood."He explained. "She's got a shorter fuse than usual, and that's saying something. The slightest problem can get her angry. Don't worry; she won't be mad at you."

He knocked on the door. She could hear footsteps coming down the stairs and pretty soon, Leah opened the door. Her hair was in a loose braid and down to her knees. Jaymee had never seen a woman who didn't cross dress wearing pants. Apparently it was normal here. She was wearing black baggy pants (A/N: Leah's wearing sweatpants, but Jaymee doesn't know what those are because the shinigami world is roughly 75 years ahead in technology. It's roughly the 1980s in the shinigami world at the moment) and a red sweater. Her face broke into a smile as soon as she saw them.

"Hey, welcome home." She said as she hugged Grell. She glanced behind him.

"Oh and you must be Jaymee. I do believe we didn't get the chance to introduce ourselves. It's so nice to finally meet you. I'm Leah Spears." She said with a smile.

"I'm Jaymee Knightwood, nice to meet you too. It's surprising that William would be married to someone like you. You're not uptight at all" Jaymee remarked. Leah burst out laughing.

"I've been told that many times. Come on in!"

They walked into the house and Jaymee was surprised by everything she saw.

"I was just finishing up the papers." She said quietly. "There's been a little bit of a problem. Sit down and I'll make some tea while we wait."

"Is that a telephone?" Jaymee asked, poking the thing sitting on the television. "It doesn't have an attachment. How do you dial it?"

"You press the buttons." Grell said, smiling. "I keep forgetting that humans are so far behind on technology."

"We're not behind; it's you guys who are ahead!"

"I guess you could see it that way."

She spied a pencil holder and moved to touch it.

"What is this? It's not metal or wood…"

"It's plastic."

"Oh. What's plastic?"

Grell sighed. This was going to take a while. Leah had brought the electric kettle in. Jaymee had poked it as well and it had whistled. She had probably jumped almost ten feet in the air and had hid behind Grell until Leah started laughing. Finally, after getting accustomed to all the new 'futuristic' things, she sat down at the dining table and fingered her tea cup, listening as Grell and Leah talked.

"Well, she'll need more mediums than the regular Trans shinigami would."

"Why?"

"Her killing count is 1465 souls. That will equal a lot of power." She said, tapping a very large thing that she had introduced to Jaymee as a calculator. "So instead of needing two mediums for equal power distribution, she'll need at least four."

"Okay… me, you, William and Ronald. I don't see the problem."

"I don't know if all of us will be able to fight her and win. Remember, it all depends on how well we can fight."

"You're the former child of death. You still have telekinesis."

"Yes, but according to my studies, she might be more powerful than I am. William agrees"

"Speaking of William, what did you tell him on Thursday?" He asked. "What did you whisper into his ear?"

Before she could even open her mouth to say, Grell instantly got the wrong idea.

"Oh god, you're pregnant, aren't you? When are you due, when are you due?"

"What the hell? No I'm not. You didn't even let me speak, did you?"

Then she leaned over and whispered the same thing into his ear.

"Oh god… that's nearly as bad. Are we going to manage with four mediums?"

"Five would be nice…" She agreed worriedly.

"I'll go get someone else from the managerial class."

"The more the better" She said quietly. "We should probably get going and get her conversion into a shinigami started."

So they set off towards the library quietly.


	17. the fight

**I'm sad that no one reviewed the last chapter. I hope I'll get more reviews this time.** **Sorry this chapter took so long to put up. She finally becomes a shinigami! For this, I have made a super long chapter. :D Thanks to AquaLotus99 for the transformation ideas. ^^**

Chapter 16: the fight

They walked to the library quickly and quietly with Jaymee at their heels. She had borrowed some of Leah's clothes for fighting as they were almost the same size. Jaymee was smaller, shorter and younger by far, but Leah still treated her as an equal. They walked into the library and up to the reception desk. Again, Jaymee was struck by how big this place was.

Leah walked to the front desk. The shinigami at the desk bowed her head in acknowledgement. Jaymee guessed that whatever a 'child of death' was, it must have been pretty important for her to receive such reverence from everyone around her. She exchanged a few quick words with the secretary, who stood up with a short bow and walked out of the room quickly. Pretty soon, more footsteps could be heard.

"Do I really have to be a part of this?" A new voice asked.

"Unless you want me to give you full responsibility of the girl, yes." She recognized William's voice.

"Hey, that might not be so bad…"

"That includes teaching her absolutely everything about being a shinigami."

"Never mind then… I hope she's cute."

The door opened and two shinigami walked out of the room. William walked towards Leah and gave her a quick hug. The shinigami behind William was a guy with black and orange hair that looked as young as Jaymee did. He was probably at least a thousand years older than her though.

"Hey there" He said, winking at Jaymee. Jaymee smiled back politely. Grell glared at the new shinigami. She guessed that this was the Ronald guy they were talking about. "So… why does she need four mediums?" Ronald asked. "She doesn't look any different than any of the other Trans shinigami did when they were human."

"She's killed at least a thousand people. Unless you want her inner demon to kill you, I suggest that you go along with the plan."

"Inner demon?" Jaymee repeated, paling slightly.

"It's nothing to worry about" Grell promised. William walked up to a different door and punched in some sort of pass code. The doors opened mechanically. Jaymee noticed that they were fortified and were thicker than her fist. They walked into what looked like the inside of a metal snow globe. Everything was fortified except for a little hole in the very top of the sloping ceiling. A little beam of light was coming from that little hole, hitting a spot on the floor.

"Well then" William said, adjusting his glasses with his death scythe. "Is everyone ready?"

The other three nodded their heads.

"Miss Knightwood, if you would please stand in that circle of light." Jaymee moved nervously inside the circle. The four shinigami closed into a circle around her and all of them held hands so that Jaymee was in the center.

"So what am I going to have to do?" She asked William, who seemed to know the most about the conversion itself.

"You'll have to fight an inner battle. At this point, your soul will be split into three parts of yourself; your human self, your demon self and your shinigami self. You present a more difficult challenge; because of all the people you killed your inner demon will be especially strong. You will have two hours to battle your demon self and win your shinigami self's approval and power. If you have not defeated your inner demon by two hours, it will permanently take control of your body and we will have no choice but to kill you."

"Wonderful." She sighed. "Do I get any type of special power while I'm fighting this demon person thing?"

"Your willpower is always the strongest weapon" was all William said. "Are we all ready?"

"Yes" Everyone said.

The four shinigami closed their eyes. Leah said something, but it didn't sound like English. It was an ancient language, powerful and different. Her form promptly started glowing with yellow fire. Then Grell said another line in that same language. His figure glowed with bright red fire. They travelled around the entire circle until it was a bright combination of circling bright yellow, green, red and blue flames.

These flames ascended towards the ceiling and up through the little hole in the ceiling. Within a split second, they all turned bright gold and rebounded right back down into the center of the circle, right where Jaymee was standing. It lifted her into the air as her eyes closed, losing consciousness. The flames disappeared.

Jaymee reopened her eyes and smiled with an insane sweetness, her eyes were glowing scarlet with slit pupils. Her blonde hair turned black and her teeth elongated into fangs. She landed on the floor in a cat like position. All the shinigami got out their death scythes. This was the beginning of her test. Grell hoped she would win against herself.

X-x-x-x-x-x-X

Jaymee was falling. She must have been falling for quite a while now, but it wasn't scary, as she was falling slowly. Pretty soon, the ground came into view. She tumbled into a field and stood up. She was in a field, the yellow grass nearly knee high. A rustling of wind made her look around. She was facing another girl.

It was Jaymee, only so different. This version of Jaymee had hair that was nearly ankle length and billowed around her. Her eyes were yellow-green, but she didn't wear glasses. She wore a plain dress shirt with a dark red vest over it, a black bow around her neck and black dress pants. Her gloves were black like all the other shinigami. She smiled at Jaymee.

Jaymee reached out to her but she shook her head and stepped back.

"Prove that you are worth becoming me first." Her voice was echoing in Jaymee's mind, but there was nothing for the sound to bounce off of. "I refuse to become part of a weak human. Prove to me that you are better than the rest. Show me that you deserve to be a shinigami, and I will gladly join with you."

The shinigami version of Jaymee flicked her hand forwards and black sparkles came out of her hands. A shadow grew facing Jaymee. As Jaymee watched, it got taller and solidified into a person as it twirled around. The figure stretched towards the sky and hands and fingers could be seen. Finally, colour was given to the shadow.

"Hello again, little Miss perfect." The girl said, grinning sadistically. Her eyes were bright blood red, her hair darker than a raven's wing. Jaymee noticed that one of her eyes was scarred shut with a bright black line that seemed to glow. A sword formed in her hands and the girl charged at Jaymee.

Jaymee barely managed to get out of the way in time.

"It's about time I fought you." The girl said.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I'm you"

"I'm not a sadistic bitch. Who are you really?"

"I'm the demon version of you. I don't exist yet, but after I destroy you, I will. Jaymee's such a stupid name. I think I'll rename myself Maria after I fight you."

Maria charged at Jaymee who dodged again. Jaymee didn't have any special powers. She was still grounded while Maria was able to jump at least five times higher than she could, flipping around. Jaymee felt like a squirrel being attacked by an eagle. She was defenceless.

What happened to all that talk about willpower? She'd have to figure this out soon. She ducked as Maria sailed over her head. The shinigami version of Jaymee just stood off to the side and watched the battle with emotionless eyes.

"You see, Rose? This pathetic human doesn't deserve your strength. Especially the added powers that mother death gave you." Maria said to the shinigami girl.

"Wait, Maria. Mother death doesn't give powers purposelessly. I will watch and see what her broken soul is capable of."

To Jaymee's shock, rose vines curled around her shinigami's form and created a throne made of rose vines, onto which she sat down, seemingly unbothered by the thorns.

"You do realize that I'll always exist, even if you destroy me, right?" Maria asked.

"Yes, but at least you'll accept me." Jaymee said. "Perhaps I'll be able to teach you some manners."

"So calling someone a bitch is manners?"

"It's the truth" She said and snorted as Maria attacked again.

X-x-x-x-x-X

Jaymee attacked so fast that Leah could barely defend herself. She flung her death scythe like a boomerang and she skittered backwards to avoid it. She had been right. Jaymee's inner demon was so strong that it nearly matched her own power. Leah wished that she hadn't given up her powers of death so that she could at least restrain Jaymee while her battle was coming. She glanced up at the wall.

The timer was still going. One hour, thirty minutes. If Jaymee didn't finish this in half an hour, she'd be dead.

X-x-x-x-x-X

Maria was angry. Her attacks got wilder and more frequent. Jaymee saw frequent openings in her defence that she could have used if she had a weapon. The angrier Maria seemed to get, the less she seemed to be paying attention to her concentration. Jaymee knew that time was running out, as she was getting shorter and shorter of breath, while Maria was getting stronger. She needed to finish this now.

What had William said again? _Your willpower is always your strongest weapon. _

Weapon…

She remembered how Rose, her shinigami self had created the rose vines seemingly from nowhere. She straightened up.

_I want my bayonet back. _She thought, and held up her hand. Her favourite bayonet appeared in her hand, with the same hole in the wooden frame that she was used to. She took aim and fired. The bullets clanged off Maria's sword, but each time a bullet hit it, it seemed to waver like a mirage.

_This is another version of me, right? I guess picking a bayonet as a weapon is to be expected… could I try something she wouldn't see coming? _

She thought of what she wanted her death scythe to look like once she became a shinigami. She imagined two sets of rotating blades, like a shuriken, only bigger by far, with each blade at least a meter long and curved like a bird's beak for that nice circular motion as it rotated. Both of those weapons materialized in the air and she grabbed the middle of them. They rotated around her like mini helicopters.

_Hell, yes. I'm going to send you back where you belong. _Jaymee thought with a grin. She flew up to where Maria was hovering and attacked her. She defended herself.

"What the hell are those?"

"Something you wouldn't dare use." She said laughing.

"But you can only throw it. You can't attack with it." Maria said.

_Are you sure about that, darling? _

Two of the four blades folded inwards to make a double bladed sword. Jaymee raised it high above her head and ran Maria straight through with it. Instead of blood spewing everywhere, it was shadow matter.

"Damn it… so you were strong enough." Maria said haltingly. "You have no idea how much I hate you, but I think that you deserve the strength. Hurry up and use it, so that I don't come back and take it from you. Mother gave you great power. If I see that you're not cherishing that fact, I'll try to take control of you again. Hurry up and make me proud, Jaymee, though that's probably something you don't want to do."

Her form faded away into a black shadow.

Jaymee fell to the ground, breathing hard. Rose had stood up from her throne of roses and had walked to stand in front of Jaymee, a radiant smile on her face. She held out her hand and Jaymee took it.

"I'm so proud of you" Rose said as her form faded into sparkles. Jaymee's eyesight went blurry and then went black.

X-x-x-x-x-X

Jaymee's senses slowly came back to her. She could hear voices around her, Grell's voice being the loudest.

"Well, if she won against herself, why is she not waking up?"

"You're too impatient. She's probably really tired. You need to give her time. She should come around shortly." She recognized Leah's voice. She didn't feel any different. Did she look any different than she did before? She couldn't lie on the floor forever. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up.

She shook her head several times.

"Holy crap…"

She felt stronger and much better. It felt like she was the queen of the world.

"How do you feel?" Grell asked as he helped her stand up.

"Great, actually" She said, smiling.

"Congratulations" William said with what looked like the slightest hint of a smile.

The doors opened and a person in a hooded cloak walked in. Said person wore a bird doctor mask over their face. Jaymee didn't know whether or not to be scared, but the others didn't seem to treat the person any differently. The person walked up to Jaymee.

"Welcome to our world, Trans shinigami number four hundred and fifty eight, Jaymee-Rose Maria Knightwood."


	18. mother death

**I'm BACK! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!~ I am very happy. I got my computer fixed yesterday and I have not been off it since. :/ **

**You can officially expect me to continue updating at my breakneck speed.** **In the next Chapter, our beloved Jaymee starts her training as a shinigami. **

**How will that go? Let's just say that she's hiding more than you think. **

__**enjoy**!

Chapter 17: Mother Death

"Ok so what now?"

"We find you a place to live" Leah said. "Thankfully, the neighbouring house next to ours is unoccupied. You can live there."

"Ok. So when can I become an actual Grim Reaper?"

"As soon as you'd like" William said

"Can I start tomorrow?"

"Are you sure you're used to your new body?"

"Yeah I think so" Jaymee said, stretching her arms. Her hair had gotten longer, possibly from her connection with Rose, whose hair had been nearly floor length. It was nearly shoulder length now, but still longer in the front and shorter in the back. She brushed it out of her eyes. "Will I need glasses?" She wondered.

"We can give you glasses that are without a prescription, but you will still need to wear them."

"Great… I've got the best eyesight in the world and I have to wear glasses."

"They won't make your vision any worse." William said.

"Says the one who can't see this far in front of his face" Leah stretched out her thumb and her index finger "without things getting blurry"

William just sighed and shook his head at his wife.

"I'll be getting back to work now. I have a few souls to collect on the battlefield."

"Right… it feels so weird thinking that the war is still going on…" Jaymee said with her eyes a million miles away. William gave Leah a quick hug, slashed the air with his death scythe and stepped quickly and carefully through the portal.

They looked around at the streets. People were no longer staring at Jaymee like she was some sort of weird mutant species but rather didn't pay any attention to her at all. She rather liked this.

"Hey, since you haven't been to the shinigami world, why don't we give you a tour and show you around?" Grell asked, taking her hand. "I know of some stuff I'm sure you'll love."

"Isn't the shinigami world huge?"

"It's only two cities" Leah assured. "You don't need to know anything about the green city."

So they set off. Jaymee couldn't help but admiring everything. Leah would nudge her at times.

"Stop gawking" She whispered into Jaymee's ear. "You look like a country hick who's just seen the big city for the first time"

Jaymee promptly glared at Leah, who laughed. It wasn't a menacing gesture, as these two naturally got along very well. They spent a little while looking around in the downtown city. Leah grimaced when she saw all the pink frilly dresses in the display case. Jaymee, on the other hand, loved dresses but she'd never really had the opportunity to wear any.

She felt a little awkward holding Grell's hand, but no one looked at them weird. She guessed that this was a normal thing. Pretty soon, they rounded a corner to see a huge church-like building. She looked questioningly at Leah when she saw the skull mounted upon the cross.

"All shinigami are children of death" She said quietly. "Not biologically, of course, but all our powers descend from death. There are certain shinigami that are true children of death, where mother death decides to hand some of her powers down to a shinigami she thinks is deserving to overcome any obstacles in our race's survival. This is where all of the former children of death gather. There cannot be more than one child of death at a time so that there are no conflicts."

"Hmm… so why do you call her 'mother death'?"

"The form that death assumes the most often is female, so we refer to her as mother death, or simply mother. You'll see a statue of that form inside once they let us in."

Jaymee noticed that there were two people with bird masks guarding the entrance. They bowed respectfully to Leah and let the three of them pass without any problems.

It was by far the prettiest church Jaymee had ever seen. It was like something out of a fairy tale. The room was dimly lit, with rows of pews. It reminded her of the Catholic churches she had visited as a child, only this one was much better. The only light was coming from the stained glass ceiling.

The pews were all facing a life size statue of a woman. This woman had flowing black hair that was even longer than she was tall, with a plain white dress that was tattered along the hem, and had a throne of skulls. She was very intimidating, so beautiful that she was almost scarily so, but it wasn't that which got Jaymee.

She looked at the statue and felt an electric jolt go through her body. She knew this woman. She looked exactly like the woman who had lived next door who wore nothing but black. She used to always give Jaymee and Andrew sweets whenever they passed by. When their mother died and their father left, she was the one they went to stay with until a proper guardian could have been determined. She was the one who had given her the nickname 'Jay'.

Somehow, despite all this, a voice in her head thought _this is my mother, _though she was completely unrelated to the woman who lived next door. It was the new shinigami voice inside her head.

_I don't think so _She thought back to it.

_Not your biological mother, dummy! _

_I don't get how that works_

_You will soon. Mama will guide you well. _

_Hell I hope so… or at least make me look like a teeny bit less like a misplaced idiot._

_You're not a misplaced idiot. Just wait until the end of your final exam. Everyone will be feeling like a misplaced idiot in comparison to you._

Her connection with Rose ended and she blinked twice.

"Is there something wrong, Jay?"

"No, it's nothing" She gazed up at the statue. "This is really cool, though. I didn't know there was this much about shinigami. But I don't regret my decision. This is awesome"

"I'm sure you'll fit in really well, Jay" Grell said, putting his arm around her. "Now, let's show you where your new home is going to be."

And so they walked off together. Leah stayed behind to have a word with some of her 'brothers' and 'sisters', the former children of death. She watched them disappear along the road. She wondered when Grell would finally tell her that he loved her. It was obvious, but knowing Grell, he would take forever to say it.

And somehow… she seemed to get a bad feeling when she looked at Jaymee. She smelled… death. Surely there was no danger? She was off of the to-die list. Either way, as an extra precaution, Leah herself would be surveying the record to make sure Jaymee didn't disappear off of it like she had during her final exam. If Jaymee were to die, Grell would probably also die. It was something sad to think about, but something that she had to prepare herself as a possibility to face.

She stood in front of the statue and closed her eyes, sending something like a prayer. _Please help everyone I care about make it through these difficult times. Don't let anyone die on me again. _


	19. training

Chapter 18: training

The beginning of training came early for Jaymee, yet she couldn't wait to start. William had spoken to the higher ups and they had let her start almost immediately. She had settled down into her new home, which was quite cozy and comfortable. She didn't really mind the light blue furniture, though Leah kept apologizing for it. All the new stuff gave her a headache, especially when she wanted to change the channel on the TV and forgot that there were buttons and not dials.

Grell stayed over last night, though he had to leave at around nine in the evening because he lived a little bit from here. It would take a small amount of time to walk. So early in the morning, she got up with a light feeling in her heart. Sure, she was quite scared as a matter of fact, but her curiosity and excitement overtook that fear.

She got out her uniform and put the top on. She borrowed combat boots from Leah as they had the same shoe size and put on a pair of tight fitting black pants and threw the skirt to the back of the closet. _These people are freaking crazy if they think I'm fighting in a skirt. These were obviously made for girls going to the General Affairs. I see they didn't think about those in the dispatch department. Screw it; I didn't fight a war in a skirt! _

She brushed out her hair and put it into a ponytail. For the first time, it was long enough to wear it in a different style other than down. It wasn't long enough to put into a braid, but it was a start. She combed her bangs into place and put on the trainee glasses that had come in the mail yesterday. As William had said, they did absolutely no difference to her eyesight, but she still worried about having a pane of glass in front of her everywhere she looked. She put on the white gloves and waited.

Pretty soon, the doorbell rang. It was Leah, who smiled at her.

"Are you ready for your first day of training?"

"Yeah" She said hesitantly.

"Don't worry, it's not as hard as everyone thinks it is… maybe that's just me because I had telekinesis going through it, but I can assure you it's not a head breaker."

"Ok that's good" She laughed.

"Shall we get going?"

"Yes, lets"

They walked out behind the library of cinematic records.

"Aren't we going in?"

"No" Leah said. "Some shinigami work in the library, but we teach in the building behind it." Sure enough, she was pointing to a large building right behind the library which Jaymee had never noticed before. They entered quickly and closed the doors behind them.

"I'll be teaching all of your classes, so you won't have anything to worry about." Leah winked at Jaymee. "I'll be in the room in a sec. Go wait with the rest of your classmates" She all but shoved Jaymee through the next set of doors and walked off.

Jaymee took an inconspicuous seat at the back of the class. It felt like forever since she'd been at a school. Oh well… She never dreamed that she would be studying something like this. She'd been at medicine school before the war, and had never finished it. She'd cancelled when she decided she would become a soldier.

Pretty soon, Leah walked into the room and the chatter died down. She smiled gently at the class.

"Good afternoon everyone" She said quietly. She spoke in just more than a whisper, but it carried clearly through the room and seemed to echo. It grabbed everyone's attention and the room went stark silent. Jaymee could have sworn that if someone dropped a pin, she would have heard it. "My name is Leah Spears, but you may address me as Miss Spears or Senior Spears." She looked around the room. "I see many eager faces here, however I am sad to say that only half of you will progress beyond the first exam, and less than half of those will become licensed Grim Reapers." She clicked her fingers and the projector came on.

She began talking about the death scythe and all its uses, how to use a death scythe and what happens if cut. Jaymee drank in all of the information eagerly and understood everything. She felt like she was back in school, determined to be the perfect student. Pretty soon, Leah handed out a pair of small wooden axes.

"You're all very lucky" She told us quietly. "Back several decades ago, they only let us use one of these, and we didn't get our true death scythes until after the final exam. Your next exercise is to learn how to use your temporary death scythes. You will be given a week to do so. The first test will be in a week's time, where you will be put into partners. Those partners will have to fight each other. The first person to make their partner's cinematic record unroll will be the winner and will get the chance to move onto the final exam and the written part of the course. "You will be marked in three sections, your technique mark which is how well you fight, your written mark which is how well you do on your written exam, and your ethics mark which is how well you understand the rules of being a shinigami. The marks go as such, a triple A being the highest possible score, a D being the lowest possible score"

She clicked her fingers again and a door opened behind them. The shinigami in the back row actually jumped out of their seats. Leah laughed quietly and walked through the door.

"After me, class" They hesitantly walked after her to find a huge training arena, where everything to fight was required. There were throwing targets, several human-size dummies for hacking and slashing, and a whole bunch of other oddities.

Jaymee instantly began fighting. The throwing part she didn't have any problems with. It was the cutting up that gave her problems. The blades were so dull that they barely did any damage. She might as well be fighting with a pair of scissors. However, she knew that if she positioned them just right, she would be able to fight easily. The strangest thing happened, however as she threw her axes. She felt something like an electrical twitch, and the axe floated out of her hand and hung in the air. She snatched it back. No one else seemed to notice.

It was incredible. She could use telekinesis.

She wondered how this would affect her performance and if to tell Leah or not. Perhaps it might just be kept her little secret for now.


	20. I'm not broken

Chapter 19: I'm not broken

Partners were quickly chosen within a few days. Jaymee's partner was an unforgiving boy with a cold temper. She had talked to Leah about it, who had not hesitated to say that if he ever said anything to her, she would gladly kick him out. From what Leah told her, Jaymee inferred that he was a pureblood shinigami. Purebloods tended to look at Trans shinigami like herself like she was so beneath them. He wouldn't even look at her without wrinkling his nose in disgust.

However, it wasn't what he had said that had done it. Jaymee knew that Leah wouldn't be able to kick him out, because he hadn't cheated or done anything against the law. What was crap was crap and there was nothing she could do about it.

It felt strange, however. Every time she was near him, the scar on her stomach would tingle again, and she could hear one word clearly in her mind. _Junk. _

She shook her head. She was not junk. She was not broken, and she would not let anyone tell her otherwise. But it was more difficult than she anticipated. The pangs of pain were like someone pouring vinegar on a cut. However, she tried to clear it out and not pay attention. There was no way he knew her weakness.

She'd been practicing with her newfound telekinesis powers. Stuff still floated where she didn't want it to, but she was getting the hang of it. It would be so much easier if she got Leah to help her, but she didn't want anyone to know for the moment.

Grell came to visit her pretty much every day. It was nice, knowing everyone who was around in the area. She lived in the pureblood region, and some of the people living there weren't too happy with it, but one look from Leah and they shut up instantly. She was very happy where she was, and was very happy with her choice.

However, it wasn't long before that happiness disappeared quickly. She, Grell and Leah had been walking home from training. It was slightly cloudy, but it didn't look like it was going to rain. Suddenly, her shoulder bumped into someone else's.

"Watch where you're going, will you? Are you really that clumsy?" The acidic voice asked. It was her stupid partner.

"It takes two people to bump into each other. Perhaps you were at fault?" She suggested with barely concealed anger.

"Are you threatening me, you little b-" Before he could finish his sentence, Grell had neatly taken a cardboard box and had shoved it into his mouth.

"I'd suggest not saying what you were about to say" He said cheerfully.

"I do believe that you are still one of my students, Michael Whitewood. If you do not behave yourself, I shall expel you this year myself and prevent you from becoming a shinigami."

Michael shrugged.

"Suit yourself" He said, and then looked at Jaymee right in between the eyes. "She's still a _broken _piece of _junk_ no matter how you look at it." And he smirked then, knowing the damage had been done. If only he had known how much damage, he would have never attempted it.

Jaymee's eyes went wide as the pain seared through her, the mental locks she had placed on her mind coming completely undone and floating to the surface. She gasped as the pain doubled. She looked down and saw the blood seeping through her shirt. Her scar had torn itself open again. She shook her head weakly, tears streaking down her face.

She collapsed onto her knees, sobbing quietly.

"I'm not broken… I'm not broken… I'm not broken…I'm not junk… I'm not garbage"

Her legs gave way and she fell onto the ground, her hands curled into fists, trying to pull herself back up onto her feet, to no avail. The red blood seeped around her in a circle. Michael had backed up in horror. No one could do anything but stare.

The knife that had done the damage was coming back into her memories now. Against her will, the memory flashed in front of her eyes. She saw herself as an eight year old. She saw her mother's body lying on the floor again, the blood dripping down the stairs. She saw her father coming for her and there was nothing she could do. She remembered the black knife ripping through her, having never felt this pain before, feeling like she was about to die. She remembered her father's last words to her before he left the house. She saw his crazy black eyes that burned with hate again and again.

_This is all your fault. You are a broken piece of junk that should have never been made._

The door slammed behind him, leaving the eight year old Jaymee alone and bleeding on the carpet, trying to get to her mother, but unable to move at all. She had survived, being called a medical miracle. Her mother hadn't lived. She died the moment the blade had hit her. Jaymee had been in no fit state to even go to her funeral.

Her hand drifted to her side and found her death scythe. All the pain, humiliation, anger and fear that had been cooped up inside her had reached its peak. She wanted to take her death scythes and slash as many holes in him as there were in the piece of Swiss cheese she'd eaten for breakfast.

But she couldn't lift herself off the ground to attack him. All she could do was lie there, the same way she had when she was eight. Grell came around from the shock first and ran towards her, picking her gently off the ground. She determinedly avoided his gaze, thinking that he was ashamed of her for being so weak.

Golden light surrounded Michael, and Jaymee knew that Leah must be using her telekinesis powers. He rose higher and higher into the air, panicking and screaming.

"How high should I drop him to make him pay?" She asked Grell.

"I would say to drop him from the height of the Eiffel tower, but I want Jaymee to be able to kick his ass on Friday."

Michael panicked even more at this. Eventually, Leah just shot him out of the sky like a cannon ball and dropped him in a random place in the green city. Grell carried Jaymee back to his house and said goodbye to Leah. He placed her gently down on the couch where she just lay there limply like a doll, refusing to look at him or speak.

He bandaged her up easily and gave her a cup of tea. She should be grateful… she should at least say thank you… but she could barely move or speak. He sat beside her on the couch and she slid forwards to put her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her.

"You know, I forgot to tell you. Leah showed me your cinematic record the day when you became a shinigami. It was necessary so they knew who you were. I knew what he was going to say, and I knew that it was a cursed knife, but I didn't do anything about it. I didn't know it would hurt you as much as it did. I'm sorry, Jay"

"You seem to be sorry a lot lately" She mumbled into his shoulder. He smiled once he realized that it was her attempt at a joke, and that it only sounded serious because she was so weak. She then looked away.

"What is it?"

"Nothing"

"I know you too well for that. What is it, seriously?"

"Well… it's just that I thought you were ashamed of me for being so weak… I'm ashamed of myself."

"Hell no! I would never be ashamed of you, Jay"

She sighed.

"That's good"

"I can't believe you'd ever think that" Grell grumbled. "It's like you don't know me at all"

She shrugged.

"I do"

"Then you'll forgive me for this" He said with a smile, and leaned in and kissed her. It was warm and soft. It wasn't her first kiss, but it might as well have been. They broke apart and smiled, their noses still touching, their hands connected.

"I forgive you completely" She said, and both of them laughed.


	21. battle exam 1

Chapter 20: battle exam 1

As the day of the battle exam drew nearer, Jaymee began to get more worried. She'd made a full recovery from her cut in less than five hours. As she learned, shinigami healed extremely quickly. She was no longer worried about the words that would trigger the meltdown. Leah had taken her to see a curse specialist, who had indeed confirmed that the knife used to cut her had been cursed. He had removed the curse, and had said the trigger words over and over again until he was sure it was gone.

Leah had told her that Michael had likely used some sort of cheat spell to get inside her head and see what her weakness was. There was no concrete evidence to this, however, and this would only be obvious after the first battle exam. Grell had wanted Jaymee to use a counter cheat, but then both of them would get expelled and never be able to return.

Over the time of the week, Jaymee had been experimenting with the extent of her powers, but was afraid of how far those powers went. Besides the telekinesis, she found that she had something like an affinity towards plants and flowers. She was able to make a rose bloom in less than five minutes while barely trying. Within several days, she was able to create rose vines that slinked around everywhere.

She felt ready, but at the same time, she felt nervous. What would happen if Michael decided to cheat a second time? She sat quietly at her kitchen table, absently fiddling with a rose pot that was sitting on the ceiling. The vines twined around her fingers and red roses bloomed from it instantly. She turned her hand over absentmindedly and the roses slipped back into the pot. The birds chirped outside, and the sun was shining, however she didn't feel happy.

"_You realise that if you become a shinigami, someday you might have to take your own family's souls and see them die yourself?"_

"_This is my home now. This is my family and my life. What happens will happen" _

She had responded to this easily. Even now, she didn't regret her answer. It was her life. A few days ago, Grell had told her that Andrew died in a car accident. She didn't cry, but shrugged it off. She would miss him, but she knew what she was getting into when she became a shinigami. She didn't know how to open a portal in the human world to be able to visit his grave. That was another thing she hoped to do when she became a shinigami. She glanced at the clock and grabbed all her things together.

She walked to the library without a word. Grell was off in the shinigami world collecting souls, and Leah was likely already there, talking with the managerial class. She didn't have anyone to encourage her, to at least give her some words of advice to help her do better. There was William, but she didn't know William all that well. She wanted to become friends, but she had no idea what to do. She kind of shied away from it because the similarities between Andrew and William were great. She didn't want to slip up and call him Andrew by accident. That would be quite embarrassing.

She walked into the classroom and out back, where everyone else was already sitting.

"I didn't miss my turn, did I?" She asked Leah.

"No, we just started" Leah said. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with her finger. "You didn't miss anything."

Jaymee sat down. She felt Michael's eyes on her and she returned his gaze with an icy coldness. He would never have the guts to apologize. He'd just keep on strutting around like the king of the universe until someone knocked him off. How humiliating would it be, to have that crown lifted off his head by someone he looked down upon?

"Next pair, Mason and Jack" Leah called. Two boys got up on the rooftops and began fighting. Jaymee watched with interest. Pretty soon, one of them-she didn't know which- stabbed the other and his cinematic record rolled out. Above the winner, a light began to shine, until it took the form of a pirate's sword. He grinned as he caught the sword in mid air.

"Sweet"

"Congratulations" Leah called. "Would you mind helping your partner off the roof?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure"

And so the rest of the battle exam continued. As usual, Jaymee began to feel increasingly nervous. _Come on… just let it end already… I need to get this over with…. _

"Next pair, Jaymee and Michael"

They jumped up on the roof and got out their death scythes. Despite being pale as a sheet, Michael managed a smirk.

"Feeling more confident, eh?" He whispered, grinning. "Too bad your friend isn't here to help you this time"

"Yes, very confident, in fact" Jaymee said as she did a simple lunge, which Michael dodged easily.

"Is that all you got?" He asked, laughing. He swung at her. She jumped up, landed on his death scythe and flipped away easily. "Why won't you attack me?"

"I thought I just did" She said quietly. If he wanted to turn this into psychological warfare, she was all for it.

"Well it's pathetic!" He lunged at her. "Are you too weak to hurt me? Don't you feel any anger towards me at all?"

"No"

He froze.

"Why?"

"I don't care. That's all there is to it" She attacked again. They continued this for a little while, with Michael taunting her every five seconds. Some of them were very infuriating, but she kept quiet. Most of them were aimed at her family and how she was a Trans- shinigami.

"Why… why won't you crack?" He asked, backing up. She smiled sadly and walked forwards. She put a finger over her lips. The ground cracked and vines spread out onto the rooftops, twining around them, with red roses blooming from them quickly. Now Michael looked really scared. This was the power of psychological attack. All bullies were exactly the same. They began to panic without a reaction.

"Damn it… Junk! You're junk! Junk, junk, junk!" He yelled desperately. She just laughed at him. "Broken, broken, you're a broken piece of junk!"

"It won't work anymore" She whispered. "You like taking advantage of everyone, don't you?" There was no menace in her voice. She spoke sadly, quietly, and her face was soft and had no anger in it, yet he screamed like he was seeing a monster. He had dug his own grave.

"That's too bad, because you could be so much better" She said, and stabbed him as neatly as she could. His cinematic record rolled out. That was easier than she had thought. He had trapped himself in his own mind, giving her the higher end of the rope.

A light materialized above her as her death scythe took form. Rather, two death scythes instead of one. They were the same circular blades that she had used to defeat Maria. She grabbed them and they retracted into two double ended swords, and then folded into square like bracelets. (Like the ones Miku has in her hair only much smaller) She put them into her pockets and walked towards Leah.

Pretty soon, everyone else finished as well. The remaining group was indeed half as small. Leah smiled.

"Congratulations" She whispered into Jaymee's ear.

"Where are you going?" Jaymee asked.

"I need to sort out a few things. Someone else from the managerial class will come and assign you your mentors"

Sure enough, another shinigami appeared carrying a list. This shinigami seemed quite serious, but not as serious as William, at least.

"Congratulations. You have all passed your first exam. I do hope you will continue from here. Now for the second part of your internship, you will be assigned to a mentor from the managerial class, who will teach you how to use your new weapon. Afterwards will be your final exam, which your mentors will explain to you. Now please listen carefully."

The shinigami began reciting the names and the mentors. She listened carefully for her name.

"Miss Knightwood, you will be partnered with Senior Spears"

"Which one?" She asked, to a degree of laughter. "What? You need to be specific"

The shinigami sighed. "William, the head of the dispatch department"

"Oh, ok" She was slightly disappointed. She was hoping that Leah would be her mentor, but it couldn't be helped. At least William would be slightly nice to her. She walked home quietly and dialled Grell's phone number. Of course… he wouldn't be home yet. She put the phone down on the stand.

She wondered what the next day would be like. How hard would her final exam be compared to her first exam?


	22. lost and found

**Only one person reviewed the last chapter! *sniff* makes me sad. Do you all really hate me so much? DX Anyway, thanks to SeafoamMist, the only person who actually reviewed. :C I hope I'll get more reviews this time, especially since it took me so long to get over the damn writer's block. **

** ~enjoy XD**

Chapter 21: Lost and found

The sound of the doorbell made Jaymee sit up so fast she hit the ceiling.

"Crap…" She massaged her head. "Who the hell would it be at this time of day?" She clambered out of her bed. "Talk about a wakeup call…" She was still in her dark jeans and grey t-shirt with a black bat silhouette that she had fallen asleep in last night. Her hair was a complete mess, going everywhere like a haystack. She walked sleepily down the stairs and opened the door.

"What do you- oh, hello William" She had almost said 'what do you want' to his face, but that was rude since she knew him and it wasn't like he was a random person.

"I see you haven't yet prepared for today's training" William said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"I just woke up" She said, looking up at William with half closed eyelids.

"I can see that. I'll give you five minutes to get ready, and then we'll go down to begin your training"

"Great" She shut the door. William frowned. What was it about her that reminded him of something? And what was that something? It was nagging at him in the back of his mind. She was so familiar somehow, but he'd never had any connections with humans. It was one of those things where it seemed to be completely impossible to understand, and yet as soon as he would get it, he would think about how obvious it was.

She came back out and they walked to the training area.

"Why so early?" She grumbled.

"Because another training team has to use the arena after us"

"Oh"

They entered the building.

"Your death scythe is going to be a problem, because I've never seen one like it. How well can you throw it?"

Jaymee threw it and it circled around the room twice before returning to her hands.

"Not bad… can you actually fight close combat with it?"

In response to that, two of the four blades on each of her death scythes folded in, making two double bladed swords. They spent a little while training, with Jaymee attacking William with her death scythes, not managing to make a mark on him, obviously, but still doing pretty well.

She said goodbye to William and walked home. She considered everything that had happened. Though she was a Trans-shinigami, a shinigami that had once been human, William seemed to treat her like everyone else, something she was thankful for. She certainly hadn't expected this level of crap from everyone else. William reminded her of Andrew in that way. Andrew always had judged everyone equally. It made her sad, but she kept on walking.

What had it been? What had been that song that she had been taught to sing? It was like hers and Andrew's song. It was a sad song, but it was a way of reminding them that despite everything that happened, they were still there, and lucky for that reason.

She slowly hummed the tune to herself.

_What's the matter, Jay?_

_I had a nightmare_

_Was it about dad again?_

_No… I had a dream that I was someone else, and everyone in my family died, including me! I'm so glad to be alive…_

The song was slow and sad. She kept on remembering it, now flowing through her mind. She remembered Andrew playing this on the piano, and then she'd jump up behind him and scare him half to death. She smiled sadly and kept walking home.

Days passed by, and with each day of training, Jaymee got stronger. She and William got closer, until they were almost friends, but not quite there yet. She headed over there the next morning and they trained for a little while.

"You're getting better"

"I sure would hope so" She said, plopping down on a pile of straw. "All that hard work without any progress at all…"

"Either way, you've done a good job today. I think you've earned a little rest. You can go home earlier today."

"Wow, thanks"

"Don't expect it again"

Jaymee smiled. "Sure"

"Oh and Marissa-" He froze as he realized his mistake and frowned. "I mean, Jaymee. Would you please drop these off at the library for me?"

He held out a sheet of paper and she took them without any problems and walked away. She dropped them off and walked home. She was vaguely curious. Who was Marissa? And why would William confuse them together? She had tea with Leah at two, so she could probably just ask Leah. She was married to William, after all.

So, two o'clock came and she walked over to Leah's house and knocked on the door.

"Hey, come on in"

Leah's house was incredibly neat as usual. It's like these people never messed anything up. They sat down and talked for a little while. Most of it was about getting to know Jaymee better, because they didn't really know much about each other.

"Hey Leah"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know anyone named Marissa?"

"Marissa… no, never have… may I ask why?"

So Jaymee told her and Leah laughed.

"And you were afraid of mistaking William for Andrew" She giggled. "Anyway, Marissa was William's little sister"

"Was?"

"She died along with his family when district nine got blown to bits."

"Oh…"

"She would have been around your age now, had she still been alive. You look quite a bit like her as well, so it's no wonder that he confused you two. Here, I have a picture somewhere…" She took a photo down from the fireplace. It was of a small family. She tapped her finger on the girl's face. "That's Marissa"

And it was true that she did look a lot like Jaymee had when she was twelve. They had the same upward sloping eyes, the same set of the mouth and even the same face shape.

"That's really sad…" She said quietly. "I'm sorry to hear that she died"

"It was almost forever ago. When I say that, I mean it. More than one thousand years has passed, but you never forget your family." She smiled. "I think you might be the second friend that William's ever made. Consider yourself lucky"

And Jaymee returned the smile. She did like the idea of having some friends. She would need the support during her final exam.


	23. final exam

Chapter 22: Final exam

Weeks passed, and everything seemed to get better and better for Jaymee. She and William had gotten so close together that it felt like he had become a substitute of her older brother and they really were family. If she really had been Marissa in a past life, then he might as well be her brother. Grell had returned from his field day in the human world, and had not spent a single day without Jaymee.

"Jaymeeeeeeeee!" She knew who it was before she even had to turn. She would recognize that voice anywhere. She cringed as Grell ran into her with a tight hug.

"Ow… it's too early in the morning" She complained, brushing Grell's red hair away from her face.

"It's your final exam today, I'm so worried for you and yet I'm so excited as well!" He said, hugging her even more tightly.

"My ribs are going to break" She said haltingly.

"I'm sorry" Grell let her go reluctantly, only to grab her by the shoulders. "You'll be safe, ok? Don't do anything stupid and don't wander where you're not supposed to!"

"I'm not stupid" She replied quietly, poking him in the cheek. She smiled. "I'll look after myself, I promise"

"You've got to swear on it."

"Fine, I swear on the moon that I will look after myself."

"The moon is so inconsistent though!"

"I swore. I don't care about anything else." She said. He took a look at her and had to wander around for something to say for a little while. If he had his way, he would look at her nonstop. She was so beautiful. She'd only just woken up, but she still looked perfect. Her hair was all messed up, but it looked like it was made that way on purpose, and her casual outfit looked perfect on her.

"Would you care to come in?" She asked. "We do have a little bit of time before I have to leave."

"Sure"

They sat down.

"What's with all the plants everywhere, darling?"

"Oh yeah, that's another thing I wanted to talk to you about. Check this out" She took an empty pot down from the windowsill and onto the table. She smiled and put her hand over the pot. Within two seconds, two bright red roses had grown out of the pot. She picked one and put it behind his ear in his hair.

"That is… amazing. How did you do that?"

She shrugged. "No idea." She said "I can do this pretty much anywhere where plants can grow."

He took the remaining rose, but kept the stem and wove it into something like a ring. He put it on her finger.

"Wear that for me during your final exam. Remember that you promised you'd come back safe" He said.

"Wow, you're really worried, aren't you?"

"With all the escapees from hell going around, the human world isn't exactly a safe place to be for an inexperienced shinigami like you. It's even dangerous for me, and I proved that at that warehouse."

Jaymee nodded, and gave him a quick kiss. "It's really sweet that you're so worried, but I'll be fine. It's not like I'm going anywhere on my own, I'll have my partner."

Grell stayed silent for a little bit. "During Leah's final exam, she was separated from her partner and attacked by an army of demons. I wouldn't want that to happen to you."

"Are you allowed to go into the human world during my final exam?"

"Yes, but I'm not allowed to talk to you or give you any sign that I'm there." Grell said. "They're worried I might help or drop hints of some sort."

"Oh, well in that case, you can watch my progress, can't you?"

"I guess."

"Well then, problem solved" She said, smiling. "I'm not worried. I think I'll do just fine."

They held hands as they walked to the library. Nowadays, the rumour that Grell Sutcliff, a pureblood shinigami senior was almost but not really dating a trans-shinigami wasn't any news anymore. A lot of people disapproved of the fact that Jaymee was being accepted so readily into the society, but she didn't really get much bad stuff from people, mostly because she had a child of death on her side and she had the head of the dispatch department as one of her closest friends.

"I almost don't want to let you walk through those doors" Grell said nervously.

"You should really stop worrying" She gave him one last hug. "I'll be fine. Besides, if I don't do this, I'll never be able to help you, will I?"

She took a deep breath and walked through the doors. She was greeted by two people. It was an unfamiliar shinigami, along with Jack, the boy she remembered from training.

"Ah, miss Knightwood, we've been expecting you" The shinigami said. "May I introduce you to your new partner? Jaymee, this is Jack Evans. Jack, this is Jaymee-Rose Knightwood."

"Hey" He said with a smile on his face. "You're that girl from the first battle exam. I remember you. You kicked that guy's ass where it belonged"

Jaymee couldn't stop herself from grinning. "You bet" Jack seemed to be like a nice person who didn't seem to mind the fact that she was a trans-shinigami. Jack had short black hair that sort of reminded her of William, only way messier. He had a malicious twinkle in his eyes that suggested that he was a prankster. (A/N… I'm thinking of the troll face at the moment. Problem? XD)

They followed the shinigami to the pier.

"So, how come you don't care about the fact that I'm a Trans-shinigami?"

"To be honest with you, I think it's the personality that matters. Either way, I'm a half shinigami. My mother was a human." He said quietly. "I got a bad rap like you for a little while because of that"

"Huh"

"Either way, I like you quite a bit. I think we'll get along nicely"

"Yeah"

They were led to the pier.

"All right, you two. Good luck on your exams, I hope everything will go well. If you check on your to-die lists, you'll see the name of the soul you're supposed to reap. Remember, you have three days to decide to kill the soul or not, and three days to return to the shinigami realm. The decision to kill has to be unanimous. One of you cannot kill if the other disagrees. You will find the spell to get back into the shinigami world written in blue on the back of your to-die list, plus some other useful spells if either of you get separated from each other.

"Should you find yourself in a situation where you cannot return or you are too injured to recite the incantation, we will give you a summoning tattoo. All you need to do is to touch that tattoo and a shinigami will come pick you up shortly afterwards. Only move around in the dark. Though you look like humans and could pass for them, in your case, Jaymee you were once a human, I wouldn't suggest it. Your appearances are unusual, and will attract attention. Communicate with each other by animals or by cell phone only. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir" They both said simultaneously. The shinigami smiled. He brought his hand forward and recited a spell. Black lines began criss-crossing over Jaymee's left arm until they formed a skull.

"I wish you all the best. Jump into the water when you're ready."

"What?"

"You heard me correctly. Jump in the water" The shinigami said, waving his hand over the water. It became as smooth as a mirror; however instead of seeing herself, Jaymee saw the rooftops of a city. Jack jumped in without any problems. She however, hesitated a tiny bit.

She jumped as well and felt the water rush over her head. She fell through the pier and out of the sky into a different world.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah, thankfully I had a soft landing" She said as she got off his arm. "You sure I didn't break anything?"

Jack flexed his arm. "Nah, nothing serious"

They both stood up and looked around them.

Jack let out a low whistle. "Phew… we've got a lot of ground to cover."

"You can say that again."

He offered Jaymee his arm. "Shall we get going?"

"Sure"

She grabbed onto his elbow and they jumped again.


	24. roses

Chapter 23: Roses

They hit the ground at running speed. The sun had just gone down, so it was all right for them to move around inconspicuously, as barely any human would be able to see their eyes in the dark. As they ran, Jack opened his to-die list and took a look at the soul they were supposed to kill.

"Daniel Taylor… age 25, cause of death, car accident… at 3:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday"

"Crap!" She bit her lip.

"What's the matter?"

"That's when traffic in the human world is the most built up, which means there's going to be a lot of people…"

"So what do we do?"

"I haven't got a single clue. How about, let's find this guy first and tail him for a little bit. Grim reapers don't really plan out their next steps, I've noticed." She said quietly. "Usually, it's whatever's best to do in that situation. The best thing we can do is go down, take his soul, use a memory erasing spell and get out as fast as we can."

Jack nodded and they ran further.

"Hey, you don't think there are going to be any escapees from hell in the human world, do you?"

"Well, there likely are" Jaymee said, thinking of Madam Red. "However, I think that as long as we don't disappear off the record, the shinigami staff back up in the dispatch will be able to keep an eye on us and recall us if anything."

They ran up onto the rooftops again and looked down for any flashes of purple in the thinning crowd. Jaymee put her glasses on with a sigh. She hated these things, but apparently she had to wear them anyway. She skidded to a halt, and Jack zoomed right past her before stopping.

"What is it?" He asked, making his way back to her. She pointed at the ground. There was a flash of purple, and it disappeared beyond a corner. They looked at each other, nodded and ran after it.

Pretty soon, they found him easily, making his way home. He was just your average human, walking home with a smile on his face, carrying a letter in his hand. Jaymee sat herself down on the roof and watched as he walked in. She made note of the house number and told it to Jack.

"He looks like a nice guy" Jack said. "I almost want him to survive somehow."

Jaymee shook her head. "I think we should kill him."

"Why?"

"It's written, okay? If we don't take his soul, someone else will. Besides, that's the whole point of the exam." The bitterness in her voice was barely concealed. This man was going to die the same way as Andrew died. If Andrew didn't survive the car accident, neither should he. She didn't care if she was being stupid, she didn't think anyone deserved to live after that. Her eyes drifted towards the crystal pendant she wore, the last present that Andrew had ever given her.

"Okay, if you say so" Jack decided not to ask, likely a good move.

X-x-x-x-x-x-X In the shinigami world, Grell's POV X-x-x-x-x-x-X

"Why can't I go, dammit?" Grell yelled.

"We can't allow you to ruin her final exam. You do want her to become a grim reaper, no?"

"Yes I do, but what if something happens to her?"

"Then she'll have to fight to get out of it."

"Isn't she like your sister? Why do you not care?"

"I do care quite a bit, but superior's orders are final" William said, adjusting his glasses.

"They said nothing about not being in the human world at the time of the exam!"

William sighed.

"Fine, I will go with you. You can watch, but I will make sure that you can't do anything to help her."

"Yes! Thank you, Will darling!"

They walked out the gate and stepped through the portal.

X-x-x-x-x-X In the human world, Jaymee's POV X-x-x-x-x-x-X

The days reached an end. Pretty soon, it was the day of death. Jack had agreed with Jaymee to kill. They waited on the rooftops in anticipation.

"How hard do you think the verification is going to be?" Jack asked.

"I hope it's not that hard. There are other shinigami in the human world at the moment. If we happen to be in trouble, we just copy what they do. We'll likely be able to see them from the rooftops. Remember, as soon as I collect the soul, wipe their memories" She said.

"Right"

Jack was frantically going through his to-die list, trying to memorize the artificial memory spell. The humans around wouldn't remember anything afterwards. Jaymee elbowed him just as there was a screech and a yell. A sickening thump made Jaymee look down. Great… Everyone was gathered around him.

After years of war, the sight of blood and gore didn't faze her at all. She leapt down from the building into the crowd, her death scythes spiralling around her. One of them changed into a double bladed sword and she stabbed him. She jumped back onto the roof and Jack recited the memory spell. Simple enough, right? Apparently not.

The cinematic record had refused to be collected by Jaymee. It spun up on the roof and tried to attack them.

"Duck!" Jaymee yelled. Jack yelped and ducked just as a cinematic record strand zoomed over his head.

"What now?"

"We've got to restrain it and force it to stay"

"And if we don't?"

"Well, we get the thorns of death and we die" She said quietly. She kept fighting, dodging this way and that.

"Jaymee!"Jack's yell made her turn around. There weren't just two cinematic strands anymore. All the cinematic records from all the other souls in the area that were about to be taken had surrounded her in a wall of film. She cursed and flipped up just as they all concentrated on where she'd been standing. What luck… why did they have to all go after her?

X-x-x-x-X Grell's POV X-x-x-x-x-X

"What the hell? Why are they going after her?" Grell asked worriedly, watching as Jaymee dodged everything. There were at least ten cinematic record strands. Her death scythes whirled around her in a deadly circle. She fired a blast of energy and it decimated two of the strands, but there were more of them that came right back up at her.

"I'm not sure" William said, watching the battle from a nearby building. He had a concerned look on his face.

Suddenly, one of the strands caught her off guard and all the others attacked her at the same time. He couldn't see her at all in the light of the cinematic strands.

"NO!" He yelled. He darted forwards, but William held him back.

"Wait" He said.

"What do you mean, wait? She's going to die!"

"No, just wait. If mother had enough sense to give her strength, then she will protect her."

The cinematic strands glowed even brighter as energy built up in them. It felt like a balloon, being filled with air until it popped. Then it exploded. The strands closest to Jaymee were torn apart into fragments. The shockwaves were so powerful that they resonated all throughout the city.

The bright light wove itself up into the sky. Jaymee's death scythes seemed to be whirling around twice as fast now. She attacked with renewed force and the cinematic records parted before her. Rose vines broke out of the ground and through the roof of the building and tangled with the cinematic strands, the thorns on the ends of them puncturing the cinematic record and ripping it into tiny little pieces.

"Hey, you people!" She yelled at the other trainee shinigami. "Don't just stand there with your mouths open! Hurry up and help me take these souls!"

They all looked at each other and nodded. The entire city seemed to glow with the radiation that was being emitted by all the shinigami in one place. Every other second, they would see flashes of light being fired, rose vines twining everywhere and the clang of metal against metal. Pretty soon, the light disappeared.

Every trainee shinigami that had been sent to the human world for their exam was sitting in one place, exhausted. The cinematic records were gone.

X-x-x-x-X Jaymee's POV X-x-x-x-x-X

"Yes, we did it!" Jack's yell was echoed by all the other happy yells of the shinigami. Jaymee stood up and looked at the cloudless sky, smiling to herself.

"Good work" She said quietly. "Now let's get back to our world." She carefully recited the spell for the portal and slashed the air with her death scythe. The portal opened with a whirling sound. All the shinigami jumped into it. She and Jack exchanged smiles before jumping in.

She climbed out of the pier and sat on the dock. After all the adrenaline wearing off, she realized she was really tired. She had done it. She was now a true shinigami.

She heard soft footsteps walk up to her. Grell dropped down onto his knees and hugged her. She leaned her head into his shoulder.

"I told you I'd be safe" She said. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"Yes… Now I've got to learn to take you seriously"

"Hey!"

Grell laughed, and she joined in. He carefully helped her stand up and they walked hand in hand to the training building. She ran and hugged William, and then Leah.

"Congratulations" William said with a small smile.

"Thanks" Jaymee was beaming, her smile was so bright. Grell took her hand and lead her to the glasses department where an elderly shinigami was sitting.

"Father, Jaymee's just completed her final exam."

Lawrence Anderson looked up.

"Ah yes…" He carefully reached for a pair of black pentagonal glasses and handed them to her. "Never in my entire career have I ever made a pair of glasses for a shinigami who didn't need them." He said as he gave them to her.

"Thank you, father" She said as she took them. She took off her trainee glasses and put on her new shinigami glasses. She smiled as her acceptance letter was given to her. She looked at her letter.

_Jaymee Rose Knightwood_

_Trans-shinigami number 23_

_Final exam completed on March 11__th__ 1919_

_Assistant in the dispatch department_

She smiled. She was finally a shinigami.

**Taaa daaa! She's finally a true Grim Reaper! XD Congratulations to Jay-chan! **

**I had so much fun while writing this chapter. The song I imagined for this chapter was Sunset Love Suicide by Megpoid Gumi. Yes I am a huge vocaloid fan. :D I tried singing it… it's pretty damn difficult. I'll post Jaymee singing it soon, I hope. :D **

**I want you guys to do me a favour. The only two characters I haven't written fanfictions for that I am planning to write are Ronald and Claude. I'm only writing a fanfiction for Claude because it was a dare from my friend and I almost never back down from dares. Especially not when they're from her. =_=**

**So I've got two tiny little descriptions posted there, and I want you guys to see how much you like them. Ronald X OC will be first because it will be a continuation of Love in War (sort of). I feel like Ronnie deserves an OC. :3 **

**I'll also be experimenting with various different levels of FLUFF . **

**The first one will be so cute it will be almost illegal to make fluff for it,**

**and the second one with Claude, I'll try some more intense fluff. I have no idea how that will work, but I will try it. :D**

**~darkironprincess17**


	25. invitation

Chapter 24: Invitation

"Dammit… why is there so much work?" Jaymee was sorting through a pile of cinematic records. "I'm in the dispatch, for heaven's sake… you'd think I wouldn't have this much work to do…" She slammed the book shut and put it onto the second pile on her desk. She began to reorganize the spells sheets that Leah had given her.

She'd become an assistant to those of the higher up classes, like Ronald. So on some days she'd help Leah, on some days she'd help William, and on some days she'd come along with Grell to the human world. Today she was helping Leah. Leah's day schedule was split into two.

As World War one had just ended, she was back onto her regular schedule, but most of her work was still in the shinigami world. Leah was a teacher on the first half of her schedule, and taught the spells class. On the second half of her schedule, she spent time correcting various cinematic records. Leah was teaching at the moment, and Jaymee was sorting through all the spells that Leah had given her for the next day's class.

A small piece of paper fell out. It was addressed to her. She took a look at it, read it over twice and put it in her folder. It was written in really cursive writing and she couldn't decipher anything that was written on it. She'd just ask Leah later as soon as she got on her break. A little later, she picked up the piece of paper and walked into the dispatch lobby for lunch. She found Leah sitting by herself, looking really annoyed. She already knew that the reason behind it was that William was in the human world.

Those two were so adorable. Both of them would get really annoyed whenever they weren't right beside each other or weren't calling each other every thirty seconds. Jaymee smiled and sat beside Leah.

"Hey"

"Hi"

"Did you have a bad day?"

"You have no idea" Leah said, doing a face palm. "What kind of idiot puts the wrong name on a cinematic record?"

"It looks like you've got a lot to deal with" Jaymee said. "I recently got this in the mail… I can't read a word of what this says. Can you tell me what it is?" She gave Leah the paper.

"Oh, this is the yearly invitation. Usually we have a social gathering every year" She waved her hand dismissively. "Apparently it's tradition or some random crap… Anyway, they've invited you to go, because you're a shinigami now."

"Wow, great! I can't wait! When is it?"

"It's at ten thirty tomorrow. I'm surprised you got the invitation so late." Leah said.

"I've never been to a ball before" Jaymee said with shining eyes.

"Your reaction is completely different from mine" Leah said laughing. "I hate anything fancy, and I don't really like balls. You should have seen me several years ago. I tried to think up any possible excuse for me not to go. But you seem happy enough"

"Yes! But I don't have a dress to wear…"

"That's ok. I have the perfect thing for you." Leah said. "I bought a dress for myself a little while ago, but I never wear it. I can give it to you, seeing as you'd probably look better in it."

"Ok"

About halfway through the day, Grell stumbled in through the doors of the dispatch lobby, white in the face. Jaymee stood up and ran to him.

"Are you all right?" She asked worriedly. He nodded.

"I'm fine."

"What was it?" She wondered.

"More escapees from hell... I think they're ready to make a move." He said. "There are more and more of them every day. It's such a bother. They're almost as strong as shinigami."

"This is getting out of hand… we need the help of the demon king and demon queen." Leah said.

"But you know them. Can't you go and talk to them?" Grell asked Leah. She shook her head.

"I've only had one audience with the demon queen. It was all right, seeing as I was the child of death at that time, and I was almost equal rank to her. But I already gave up my powers. I'm good friends with the princess, but she's not much help when it comes to the demon queen."

"Any help would be good. Who's the demon princess?" Grell asked.

"Lilyanne Michaelis. Would you happen to know her by chance?"

"She's the wench who stole my Sebas-chan!"

Leah snorted. "Well, they're royalty now… I thought you said that you were friends with her."

"More or less…"

"Either way, demons aren't really happy to have shinigami in their world." Leah said. "It's got to be the current child of death who does it."

"And that current child of death is who?" Jaymee wondered.

"It's likely you, Jaymee, but we can't be one hundred percent sure."

"Me? You've got to be kidding. I wasn't even born a shinigami!"

"Mother seems to like you a lot" Leah put in. "And you've got quite a bit of unusual powers up your sleeves. I do think it's a high chance, but I don't want to do anything just in case it turns out that you're not the child of death."

"Ok…"

Jaymee sat down and thought hard.

"You said you're close friends with the demon princess, so why not have her help us? We don't need the demon king and demon queen."

"However, they act as her quote on quote 'parents'… and they don't really like it when regular shinigami visit hell. We usually meet in the human world and go for lunch or something, but never more than that. As you know, shinigami and demons don't usually get along." Leah said.

"Ok, we'll think about it" Grell said, fully recovered now. He turned to Jaymee. "You got your invitation today, right?"

"Yeah" Jaymee said.

"You're going, right?"

"Sure I am. I wouldn't miss this for anything!" She smiled.

"So why don't you go with me? After all, it's usually custom to go with someone"

"Why not" She said happily

They walked home hand in hand, with Leah tagging along.

"Hold it, lovebirds" She said. Jaymee and Grell froze and turned around. Leah was grinning, holding a camera. "Have I ever told you that I love collecting pictures? Come on now, you two, smile for me"

They both posed for the camera, with some shots of them doing stupid faces and some of them looking normal.

"I'll give you a copy" Leah promised Jaymee.


	26. the ball

Chapter 25: The ball

"Alrighty, so can I see the dress?" Jaymee asked as she followed Leah.

"Yeah, it's in the guest room. I'm sorry it's such a mess. No one ever uses it, so I just chuck all my stuff in there." She said with a sheepish grin.

"That's ok"

Leah waded through the pile of stuff all the way to the back of the room and opened the closet. She took out a blue and black dress out of it. It was really beautiful.

"Wow… it's amazing."

Jaymee walked in and touched the fabric. The top was made of some sort of hard fabric that laced up at the back. It was dark blue and had vertical silver lines going through it. It had a square cut collar line, which she loved. It made the black puffy elbow length sleeves look like they weren't attached to the dress. It had a v-line waist and had two blue roses attached to it. The skirt was made of what looked like feathered ruffles, and faded from dark blue to black in multiple layers. There was a slit up the side of the skirt. It came with a thick choker that had a rose on the front and plain navy blue gloves.

"It's so pretty…"

"I thought you'd like it." Leah said and put the dress into her hands.

"But what are you going to wear?" Jaymee wondered.

"That's a rather good question, actually. I don't own very many dresses, because when I do like a dress, I'm very picky about what I like." She dug around in the closet. "This was the very first dress I ever wore" She showed Jaymee a very plain purple one. "I wore this one for two years in a row" She showed her a pastel yellow one. "And I bought this one a little while ago." This one was forest green with a wide neckline and a diagonally cut skirt.

"I think the green one would be the best" Jaymee said.

So pretty soon, the time of the ball arrived. Leah insisted on doing Jaymee's hair and make up for her.

"You haven't done this for so long that I think it would be best if I do it."

"Sure" Jaymee said as Leah laced up the back of her dress. "This isn't a corset, is it?" She asked worriedly.

"Of course not" Leah replied, tightening the strings and tying them into a bow. "It just laces up at the back, that's all"

"Ok, good."

"How long is your hair now, Jaymee?"

"Pretty damn long" Jaymee took her hair out of her ponytail to see. It was just below shoulder length now.

"Ok… I can work with this. Just leave your hair down." And so Jaymee sat for almost an hour while Leah curled her hair and brushed it so that it fell down her back in long waves. She looked behind her.

"How did my hair get that long?" She asked. It was almost past her waist now.

"It's a temporary extension spell." Leah explained. "It will go back to normal later. Now you go downstairs. I need to get ready as well"

Jaymee ran downstairs and sat on the couch opposite to the fireplace. She carefully put on some high black socks and her matching navy blue flats. They were on a slight platform and had a dark blue rose design on it.

She was so excited. She couldn't wait for the ball to start. She hadn't danced in a while, but it couldn't be so bad, especially since she got to dance with Grell. She stood up and looked at all the pictures Leah had on her fireplace. Leah was so lucky that she got someone like William. He seemed fully devoted to her and it felt like they would love each other until the world ended. Whereas Grell… she didn't know anything. She did love him, and she loved him quite a bit. Their relationship was still a little bit foggy. Neither of them had told each other that they love each other yet, but likely that was because both didn't know what to do or how to say it.

Time and time again, she felt like she was useless, like she wasn't good enough for him. Sometimes she worried that he would come to his senses and realize that she was stupid and useless and not the one for him. What would happen then?

"Wow, Lee-lee, you look so pretty" She said as Leah came down the stairs. Leah smiled quietly.

"Thanks, Jay"

"I'll get going now. I'm waiting for Grell anyway" She said.

"All right, see you at the ball"

"Bye" Jaymee carefully walked out of Leah's house and into her own, where she waited quietly until she heard the doorbell ring. She answered it.

"Hey"

"Hi" Grell took a look at her and brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. "You look absolutely amazing."

"Thanks"

They drove into the green city for the ball. It was a wonderful evening. The music was playing and there were a lot of people there, dancing. She danced with once with Jack, once with William and the rest of the evening she danced with Grell. She was having a great time, but what she kept thinking about was nagging in her mind.

"What's the matter?" Grell asked. "That pretty face isn't smiling like it should be" He playfully pinched her cheek. She laughed.

"It's nothing, really"

"You're such a liar, Jay. I'll tickle you to death until you tell me"

"Good luck" She said, laughing as Grell shook his head.

"No, seriously what is it?"

"Well… this sounds stupid, but I'm always worried that I'm not good enough for you."

Grell blinked twice and then laughed, hugging her.

"That is the absolute dumbest thing I've ever heard." He said. "I'm not a street sweeper. I don't pick trash off the streets. If I didn't think you were worth it, I wouldn't have brought you here. I don't regret my decision at all, Jay."

"That's good to hear"

"Now that your stupid worries are over, do you want to spend the evening like we should?"

"Of course"

And then they walked back out onto the dance floor. Jaymee had the time of her life. Everything was going so nicely that she couldn't believe her luck.

But of course, luck never lasts. She was about to fall, very hard. The problem was if there would be anyone there to catch her.

**Yeah, things take a sharp twist in the next chapter. But they don't stay like that for very long! It will go back to amazing fluffiness in a couple of chapters. The next few are going to be really surprising, but that's an inevitable part so that this story progresses. How else is she going to…. ah I think I'll keep my mouth shut for this one. ^^**

**I didn't do a very good job in explaining what her dress looks like, so I drew it. Here's the deviantart link. remember to delete the spaces!**

**http: / .com /?qh=§ion =&q=jaymee+ball+reference #/ d50labr**


	27. cursed

**I'm sad because only one person reviewed… again. Oh well. Yes, the chapter title is exactly what it sounds like. Yikes… I do kinda admit that it serves Jaymee right for giving her the finger, but I doubt the curse had to be that bad. :/**

** Enjoy~~**

Chapter 26: cursed

The portal to the human world whirled open. Grell stepped out and helped Jaymee out of it.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

"Yeah, I guess. I've only ever done this once before." She said quietly.

"We don't have that many souls to kill" He said. "Remember, we're going to Leah's and William's house for dinner this evening, so you've got something to look forward to"

"Oh yeah…" Her expression lightened considerably. "Has William's workload gotten smaller yet? I never see him at work, so I can't ask him."

"He's always out in the human world these days. Most of the shinigami from our dispatch center are in different areas of the world."

Jaymee's hair whipped in the wind. The temporary extensions that Leah had put into her hair still hadn't come out, and so it was still waist length. She looked out at the sky. She was very happy that she'd been picked to be Grell's dispatch assistant. That way she could always be with him.

"Well there's the first one" Grell said. Jaymee cringed as one stabbed the other in a drunk fit.

"Gross"

"Care to take that soul for me?"

"Sure"

Jaymee collected it easily. They moved on, collecting the remaining four souls.

"There, see that wasn't so bad"

Jaymee nodded and yawned.

"Can we go back home? I didn't get enough sleep"

Quiet laughter made her look around. Was Grell laughing at her? But he wasn't moving at all, listening to the sound as well. The pair of them looked around. Jaymee's death scythes began spinning faster with her nervousness. Her eyes narrowed as the familiar figure stepped out of the shadows, her flaming hair blowing around in the wind.

Madam's eyes were still burning like crazy, but she wore a calm smile, almost like a mask.

"You again" Jaymee said, barely disguising her contempt and disgust. "What do you want?"

"Oh, I merely came to talk" Madam Red said, waving a dismissing hand. She walked closer.

"Don't come near her" Grell said, putting his arm in front of Jaymee. She paid him no mind.

"So I see you've become a shinigami. My congratulations, however you still will not be strong enough to beat me"

"I've done it once before" Jaymee pointed out. "And I'm at least ten times stronger than I was on that day"

"And I, have increased by fifty" She said with a calm smile.

"Enough talk, Madam" Jaymee said quietly. "What do you want?"

Madam Red's smile widened.

"I come with a small proposition. See, our army is lacking in shinigami at the moment. We could really use several at this moment. If you two come with us, we would be at a huge advantage. We'll reward you, as well. You can get everything you wanted. We can drag your brother down from heaven if you want him to live with you, Jaymee"

"Uh, no. He's happy where he is, thank you. I don't need you bothering him"

Madam shrugged. "Either way, heaven and hell, and every in between world will fall and be under our control. Everything and everyone will be equal. There won't be anything stupid like shinigami or angels or demons. Everyone will have the same power."

"You'll have to force us before we even consider it." Grell said.

"That can be arranged"

Five escapees from hell walked up behind her.

"Restrain them" Madam ordered.

"No you don't!" Grell yelled, whipping out his chainsaw. He managed to slash one to pieces before the others grabbed him, and threw his chainsaw away behind them.

"Hey!" Jaymee yelled. "Let him go!" She threw her death scythes at them, but they merely clanged off an invisible surface. Two more of them came and restrained her as well.

"I'll give you several seconds to think it over. I'll even have one of you if not both" she said "especially that young shinigami girl. You said your name was Jay?"

"Jaymee, actually" She said quietly, her eyes narrowing.

"Well then, Jaymee. Will you consider joining us? At least care to give us your answer?"

Jaymee made a very rude, obscene hand gesture with both her hands, her upper lip curled in a sadistic grin.

"How about that as an answer?" She asked. Madam Red raised her eyebrows.

"In a way, Jaymee, you remind me of my niece, Elizabeth. You have the same fiery temper. Either way, like any bad girl, she used to be punished severely. Perhaps I need to teach you a lesson?"

"Don't you dare touch her!" Grell yelled, struggling to break free from the guards.

Madam Red pointed a finger at her.

"Your life, Jaymee, now depends on that crystal necklace you wear" She said quietly. "If you take it off, you will die. If that crystal pendant breaks, you will die. If the rope cuts off and it falls, you will die." She smiled as Jaymee's necklace glowed bright red. "I think a curse will do the trick nicely. You can decide to come over to our side. I will remove the curse immediately. Please do think carefully about it"

Madam disappeared through the portal, and the escapees followed her. The barrier disappeared and Jaymee fell to her knees.

"Well this just sucks like hell" She said.

"Jaymee, are you all right?" Grell asked, dropping to his knees and hugging her.

"I don't feel much different" She said quietly.

"Today, we're taking you to a curse specialist instead" He said. "We'll find a way to get rid of that curse, I promise!"

"Thank you… I don't want to spend my entire life dependant on a necklace"

"As long as you don't feel any negative changes after the curse, it can't be all that serious"

Grell said, trying to reassure her. She nodded.

"Huh… I guess. This was the worst possible start to my field day…" She said as she and Grell stood up and opened the portal.

"I can't believe it!" Grell said in indignation. "They dented my chainsaw!"

"I'll fix it as soon as we get home" Jaymee promised. She didn't feel any different, nor did she feel any other change because of the curse. But it was likely like that to make her forget that she couldn't take her necklace off anymore, or she would die. She walked back into the portal, not knowing that the curse would have far more ill effects than she would have thought possible.


	28. left behind

Chapter 27: left behind

Over the period of a few months, Jaymee really began feeling the effects of the curse. Frequently, she felt drained, like it was sucking all her energy out of her. They went to visit a curse specialist, but the specialist took one look at her and shook his head.

"I've never seen this type of curse before" He said, shaking his head. "I'm afraid there is nothing I can do."

"Wait, you've got to have some idea what it is? Isn't there anything that could help even the slightest?" Grell asked, slamming his hands down on the table.

The specialist shook his head.

"Curses are a very finicky thing. We don't dare cure a curse unless it is something that we are one hundred percent sure about. Sometimes, cures for one curse can make a different curse far worse. It seems to me that this is a combination of curses. And it surely isn't doing her much good the way it is" He glanced at her bone white face, and the dark circles under her eyes. "I will try to think of something. In the meantime, I do believe you should go on a short term disability leave from work."

"Don't worry" Grell said, taking her hand. "We'll find a way to break it, I promise."

However, there was only one way to break the curse that seemed to form in his mind.

The question was, was it the right choice?

X-x-x-x-x-X

Jaymee woke up that morning, feeling worse than ever. She had barely managed to wrench her eyes open. She stumbled over to the mirror. Her yellow green eyes had lost their lustre and were no longer huge and shiny. She looked sick, but that was stupid. Shinigami didn't get sick. She looked human again, and that wasn't a good thing when you were a being that was better than human.

She looked up at the sky. She needed to see Grell. They needed to think of something fast.

It was a terrifying thought… but she felt as if she didn't have much time left to live.

She walked over at a human speed to Grell's house. She didn't have the heart or the ability to move as fast as lightning anymore. She quietly knocked on the door. No answer.

"Grell?" She called through the door. "Are you home?"

Still no answer…

She carefully picked the lock of the door and slid in. His house was exactly as it was, messy and unkempt as usual. She wandered up the stairs. Hmm… that was odd. All his stuff was gone from his room. All packed up and gone. She walked back down the stairs and out the door and picked it shut again.

Ok… why not try the library? Was he at work today? So she walked to the library, which was thankfully not far away. She walked to the front desk.

"Hello Jaymee"

"Hey"

"What can I do for you?"

"Can you tell me if Grell showed up for work today?"

"Hold on a sec" The shinigami rifled through some papers. "Hmm… he didn't come today… and yet it doesn't seem to be his day off"

This made Jaymee really worried. Where could he be?

"Thank you" She said hurriedly and zoomed away. She ran along, using the last of her energy. Finally, she spotted the flash of red hair.

"Grell!" She yelled. She ran up to him. He turned around. For once, Grell was completely serious. He wasn't smiling even in the slightest, and his face was drawn and pale.

"Jaymee"

Hmm… well that was a change. He always called her 'Jay' nowadays. What changed?

"Where are you going?" She asked.

He hesitated. "I'm leaving" He told her quietly. She blinked twice.

"Is it a job related thing? When are you coming back?"

"I'm not"

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. I'm not coming back"

"Then why don't I come with you? We're in this together. I'll help you no matter what" She said, looking up at him, smiling. He looked down at her, and he looked genuinely sad, something she'd never seen before. Then his expression suddenly hardened.

"You'll just hold me back. A cursed person has never done anyone any good. Look at what you've done to me. Did I ask for this?" His words cut through the air like the slice of a knife.

"No… but"

"-I'm leaving without you. I don't need to be lugging around extra trash" He said.

"But I…"

"Just leave, Jaymee" His voice nearly cracked. "Just go." Jaymee took a step back. Her eyes met with his. There was no hesitation in his eyes. Was this what it had come to? Her hands balled into fists. What she had nightmares about… it had finally come true. She was no longer useful to anyone. No one cared anymore.

"Fine… but if you ever really cared about me at a point in time, you'll give me something to remember you by."

Grell seized the chain around his glasses and all but threw it at her. He turned on his heel and left. She bent to gently pick it up. She watched him leave, but didn't try to stop him. The sun was shining with a couple of clouds here and there; completely unfitting with the mood she was in. She wasn't sad or anything. She just felt hollow. She was standing there like an idiot. How dumb…

She made her feet move, and walked back home. She sat down on the couch and made herself some tea, still fingering the chain of Grell's glasses. She set the glass down and just sat there for a little bit.

Her eyes then fell on the picture frame on the coffee table. It was a picture of them together, the one that Leah had taken. Grell had made her laugh so hard that day that she was practically crying. The picture had been taken almost immediately after that, so both their smiles had been genuine. They looked like they were having so much fun… almost an eternity ago…

She fell down on her knees and began to cry, her head bent over the chain.

"Why… why am I not good enough? What did I do wrong? Why did you leave me when I need you the most?"

Her shoulders shook as she looked up at the sky, tears streaming down her face. The roses on the balcony began to wilt, one by one.

"I don't have anyone left…"

**Yes, it's really sad, but please don't kill me! It's not over yet! You still have a ton to look forwards to, so please keep reading, despite the fact that it's going to get pretty sad. :/ You will be rewarded if you stick with me. X3**


	29. gone

Chapter 28: gone

Leah had been really supportive during her tough time. Almost immediately after it had happened, Jaymee had automatically called Leah. Leah came over practically every day now, or Jaymee would have to come to her place, as Jaymee's health had started going down at least twice as fast since Grell had left.

"Why did he leave?" She wondered to herself. There wasn't a night that she didn't spend thinking over her mistakes, and crying to herself slowly. She felt pathetic… she was pathetic, in a way. She wanted to punch herself in the face, to snap out of it and get back to business, but she couldn't do it. It was too much for her, first losing her brother, then her guarantee to live forever, and then the most important person to her.

She stood on a rocky outcrop near the pier. Her feet slipped on the hard rocky surface, but she kept climbing all the way to the top. She then took her necklace off her neck and held it in her hand. She noticed that it had to be in contact with her body, but not necessarily with her neck.

She raised the necklace high over her head, ready to throw it over the edge and into the water. She hesitated. She had decided to do this, but she still had doubts about it all. Could she really do this? Was it really going to end like Romeo and Juliet? But he was gone, and he wasn't going to come back. But who knew… maybe he would come back after all. But he didn't want her anymore. He had stopped loving her.

But didn't he say that he was a good liar?

But she didn't see any hint in his eyes that he was lying. Why would he lie to her? But of course… she let out a laugh. He had never loved her in the first place. He had never told her straight out 'I love you'. So there was nothing to mourn… only the death of her, and her world.

A hand caught her wrist as she was ready to throw the necklace over the edge.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"William"

"Stop being an idiot and put that thing back around your neck"

She did as she was told, and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Do you know how much you scared me?" He asked. Her large owl like eyes stared at him. The dark circles made them look even larger. He touched her cheek. "You're really not doing well, are you?"

She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. He hugged her gently.

"Just because he left doesn't mean it's the end of the world" He said quietly. "He's not something to commit suicide over. Leah and I still care about what happens to you. Will you survive for us?"

She nodded quietly.

"I'm sorry…"

She meant her apology, but she wasn't sure how much else she meant. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Grell. All she could think about were the happy memories they had shared. Them sitting together in the cottage, planning her escape… Him playing with her newly cut hair and teasing her on how much she looked like a boy… His voice being the first thing she heard when she first became a shinigami…

She walked home quietly, her hands itching towards her necklace. But she slapped her hand away each time. How would this continue for?

X-x-x-x-x-x-X

"Are you serious?" Leah asked as William stumbled through the door of their house and told her everything. "She tried to kill herself?"

He nodded.

"Holy crap… I didn't think it was that bad… I'm going to kill that jerk if he ever comes back"

"Allow me to do the honours" William said as he fell into a chair.

"Okay"

Leah began getting a whole bunch of stuff together.

"Where are you going?"

"To see Jaymee, of course. I think I might start coming around twice a week now… She's getting worse"

"So I've seen…"

Leah walked hurriedly over to Jaymee's house and knocked on the door. There was no answer. Leah sighed. Of course… she was probably too sad to answer the door. She would come back at another time.

She came back the next day. Still no answer… she was getting a bit worried. Still, she went back home.

On the third day, she knocked on the door and there was no answer. She knew that something was wrong. She pounded on the door.

"Jaymee Rose Knightwood, if you do not let me in this minute I swear I'll-" She froze, and her eyes widened as she leaned closer to the door. She blinked twice and kicked it down immediately. She didn't even bother to put it back in its place, and ran into the living room.

Jaymee lay on the carpet beside the coffee table, her eyes wide open. Roses twined around her entire form, adorning her hair, and spiralling around her form, almost as if saying goodbye. Tear tracks were still visible on her cheeks. Leah walked closer. Jaymee's eyes were grey, the yellow green bleached into black and white. Her eyes were glazed over. The beautiful crystal pendant lay hanging over the side of the picture frame. Roses were curling from the pendant as well.

Leah bit back tears as she knelt down and closed Jaymee's eyes. Gone… completely gone… She waved her hand half heartedly and the door slid back into place. She needed to see the brothers of death. What happened when a child of death died and hadn't passed down their powers? She didn't think it possible for a child of death to die before their task had been accomplished. But she didn't really think. How would she break the news to William? It would be like losing his sister a second time.

X-x-x-x-x-x-X

Grell wandered back into the shinigami world. It had been two months. Madam said that she had lifted the curse in exchange for the information he had given her... He hoped it had worked. He was aching to see Jaymee. It had been so horrible for him, having to leave her. The question was if she would accept him back? He hoped she would. He missed her smile, but he would be lucky if he ever saw it again.

However, when he reached her doorstep, he found that the door was boarded up. He frowned and headed over to Leah's house. He knocked on the door.

"So you're back" She said with arms folded.

"Please don't kill me" He whispered. She shook her head.

"I know why you did it… I'm not that stupid."

"Where's Jaymee? Why is her house boarded up?"

Leah hesitated.

"She's gone" She whispered. Grell's expression became confused.

"Well, where did she go?"

Leah shook her head, tears forming in her large eyes. Grell looked even more confused.

"You misunderstand me, Grell. When I say she's gone, I mean that she's dead. She died three days ago. Her funeral is tomorrow."

**Argh… I'm sorry I keep on torturing you people. This is the lowest point! It gets better in the next chapter. :3 LOL... they're in for a huge surprise later on. **


	30. the funeral

Chapter 29: The funeral

"She's gone" She whispered. Grell's expression became confused.

"Well, where did she go?"

Leah shook her head, tears forming in her large eyes. Grell looked even more confused.

"You misunderstand me, Grell. When I say she's gone, I mean that she's dead. Jaymee died three days ago. Her funeral is tomorrow."

Grell took a step back, his eyes wide with horror. He shook his head.

"You're joking. You can't be serious…"

Leah met his gaze quietly. He shook his head.

"You're lying, aren't you?" He ran out of the house and pounded on Jaymee's door. He got out his chainsaw and let it rip on the door, demolishing it into pieces. He then ran into her house and looked around. He ran into the living room. He didn't want to believe it. It wasn't true, was it?

But he then saw the rose vines still on the floor, how they would have fit her body shape to the exact. The roses were no longer red, but black and purple, and their petals sagged sadly. He then looked up where they were coming from. He looked on the coffee table and saw the numerous picture frames of them together. He saw the chain from his glasses on the table, and just above it, her crystal necklace. It had been placed lovingly over one of the frames.

He took the necklace off of the picture with shaking hands. He sank down onto his knees, his shoulders shaking, his eyes wide.

"How did this happen…? Why?" New roses began blooming from the necklace, but they were made out of crystals, hard and cold as ice.

"I left to save her life…" He put his face in his hand.

X-x-x-x-x-x-X

Jaymee's coffin was made out of mahogany, and polished to perfection. A shinigami funeral was an odd thing. Shinigami reaped human souls to allow humans to go onto the next world. For a shinigami to be able to go to the next world, they had to have something called a soul funeral. It slightly resembled what happened when a human got converted into a shinigami. The same golden light would appear over the coffin, and then go back up through the roof, taking the soul with it.

Jaymee wore a red dress with a gold cross on the shirt. There were three red roses in her hair, and she held a cross in her gloved hands. She was painfully beautiful, even more painful since this was her funeral. She looked strangely at peace, even though everyone who knew her knew that it wasn't true. At least she was no longer suffering.

"What are you doing here?" William asked Grell as he walked in.

"I came to say goodbye, obviousl-"

The sharp thwack sounded through the entire church as William backhanded Grell across the face.

"You're not welcome here" William said, his face tight with anger. "You've already done too much damage." He paused. "Actually, you will stay. And to add a little insult to the injury, why don't you be the one to carry her coffin into the graveyard?"

Grell didn't say anything, and just sat down. The pews were divided into two rows. William and Leah sat in one row, and Grell sat on the other side in another row. Leah kept checking her watch every other minute.

"What did the brothers of death say?" William asked.

"They said that they will wait to arrive until after the soul funeral is over… I don't know what will happen to the powers that a child of death holds…" Leah bit her lip. The room seemed to get brighter as a white light filtered down from the ceiling.

"It's starting… the soul funeral" Leah said quietly. Grell bit his lip and looked upwards as the golden light soared downwards, ready to take Jaymee with it… his Juliet. He realized that he wasn't ready to say goodbye, no matter how far time came. He needed her, and she had gone. He didn't want this to happen…

The golden light seemed to hit a barrier several meters before it could touch Jaymee's coffin. Leah stood up just as it seemed to overlap the coffin. But there were no sparkles to see that it had taken her soul. It ascended back up into the ceiling and disappeared.

"What happened?" Leah wondered. "Why didn't it take her soul?"

"I'm not sure" William replied.

As sensitive as the ears of shinigami were, not one of them noticed that there were now four heartbeats in the room.

Jaymee felt really groggy, like she was forced to wake up early in the morning. First her sense of touch came back to her, and then very slowly, everything else. She felt tired… what day was it? Did she have to work today? Her first instinct was to pull the covers back over her head, but there was no blanket. That couldn't be right, could it? Where was she?

"…sure she's dead?" A voice asked.

"I saw it myself" She recognized Leah's voice. "You said yourself that when a shinigami's eyes are grey, it means they're dead"

Then the memories flooded back into her head. Her eyes snapped open. Her gasp echoed through the whole church as she wrenched herself upright in her coffin. She put her face in her gloved hands. She'd been _dead _for hell knew how long. It was deathly silent in the church before a familiar voice yelled "Jaymee!" and hugged her.

She panicked and started to struggle, unsure of who was hugging her. The touch was familiar, however. She stopped struggling for a moment to see who it was. The familiar red hair… it was him again. She was ready to shove him off her and slash at him with her death scythe, until she realized that he was shaking. In his hands, he held her necklace. The one that had killed her-

Her eyes widened as she put two and two together. He hadn't left her just like that… She closed her eyes and leaned her head against his shoulder, and put her hand over his with a sad smile.

"I'm so sorry…" He whispered.

"You're forgiven" She said back quietly. After getting over the shock of seeing someone dead coming back to life, William and Leah ran up to hug her as well. It was a great highlight to everyone's day.

**See, it does get really happy! You're in for a lot of fluff later on. X3 **

**Perhaps an engagement? **

**still thinking about the statement above, however. XDD **

**SHOULD Grell and Jaymee get engaged? **

**~this story revolves around you readers, so do what you want. To me, Grell doesn't seem like the type of person who would be really committed, but if you guys want them to get married, I can make Leah force Grell… ah, the power of not-siblings. ;3 **

**~Darkironprincess17**


	31. declaration of war

Chapter 30: declaration of war

There were a lot of problems to figure out after Jaymee was found to be alive. They had taken both her glasses and her death scythes back, so it took quite a bit of work from William to get them back again, because having a shinigami brought back from the dead had never happened before in the history of all existence.

It was with renewed happiness that Jaymee put her glasses back on her face. After being used to being dragged down by the weight of the curse, she felt as light as a balloon, like she'd float away...

"Please, can I go and kick her ass?"Jaymee would constantly ask... "I want my revenge now!"

William was still angry with Grell, and each time Grell would try to speak to him about something, he'd always get the cold shoulder in return. Leah was more forgiving, whereas Jaymee acted like nothing had happened whatsoever, as she knew that it was painful for him to bring up. Sure, a little bit of her trust in him had been lost, but that was okay because it could be gained back.

Grell would always be seen within a foot of Jaymee. He would constantly be holding her hand or have his arm around her, like he was afraid that someone would come and take her from him. She found the attention quite nice, actually. The fact that Jaymee had been brought back to life confirmed that she was indeed the 27th true child of death.

Nothing had really changed about Jaymee since her death. She looked exactly the same as ever, her hair perhaps a tiny bit longer, but that was it. However, she had gained a new attack. When she was only able to make rose vines before, she was now able to make red crystals as sharp as swords grow out of the ground in an instant. They could spear almost anything into a shish kebab before they could even say the word.

Now, the four of them sat in the dispatch lobby, searching up information.

"I sent my necklace in to the analysis department" Jaymee said quietly.

"Did you get anything back?" William and Leah both asked in unison.

"Nothing about the curse, but I did get quite a bit of information about the escapees from hell" She fished out a couple documents from her bag. "You see, they leave traces of their energy anywhere they go, so… I've managed to get a couple reads on them. Take a look"

William leafed through the documents.

"Very interesting… can't be killed by material weapons"

"What does that mean?" Leah asked.

"It means we can't kill them with weapons of any kind, including death scythes. You can only get one good hit with a death scythe, and that isn't optimistical in a fight."

"So you're saying that only spells can finish them off"

"Pretty much" William said. "Jaymee's crystal thorns could probably do it, as could your spirit powers. But what we really need is fire" He said.

"Where are we going to get that?" Jaymee wondered.

"I know!" Leah said happily.

"And I don't like it one bit" William grumbled.

"The demon princess and I just happen to be very good friends." She smiled. "Lily just happens to be an ifrit, a fire demon. Any fire within the area is permanently under her control. It's quite convenient, seeing as she's a black angel as well, and the demon princess. She'd make quite an ally"

"I do not want to interact with demon filth"

"They're not as bad as the rest" Leah said, pulling on William's arm. "Lily was human up until a point in time, and she's kept all of her emotions and sanity. Her fiancé Sebastian isn't all too bad either, though he's never been human. I'm sure he'll be willing to help. You two did work together at a time, right?"

"We had a common enemy" William said stiffly.

"You have a common enemy once again" Leah said.

"I refuse"

"Stop being so stubborn!" Leah said, opening a portal. "You wouldn't want to make me go into hell on my own, would you?" She asked, her eyes huge and sad.

William sighed and looked away. "Fine…" he grumbled. "I'm only coming along for you"

Jaymee found it rather quite funny actually. William was still annoyed even as they made their way into the better part of hell. Two guard demons stood at the gates at the entrance to the castle.

"What do we do?" Jaymee asked. In response, Leah shoved Jaymee forwards. She stepped up to the guards.

"What issss your bussssinessss here, sssshinigami?" The first one was part snake or something, because he drew out everything that had an s sound. He would talk, and Jaymee would sometimes see the flick of a forked tongue. She repressed a shudder. How disgusting. The other one was completely silent.

"I request an audience with the princess" She said quietly.

"Shinigami aren't allowed into hell… unless perhaps you are the new child of death?"

Jaymee rolled her eyes. "No shit, buddy" She said. The black bird doctor mask materialized onto her face. It materialized sideways, so she could still see, but the demon had a full view of it. "Listen, if I thought you were worth my time, I could stand here talking all day, but we have a huge problem in the shinigami world, and you and I share a common enemy. So, unless you want me to turn you into snake-kebab faster than you can flick that forked tongue of yours, you'd better let me and my friends in to see the princess."

The demon got the message and quickly unlocked the gates.

"Pleasssse wait a few minutes, milady" The demon guard said, bowing at the door. "The prince and princess will be here shortly."

They sat down and waited. Jaymee had placed herself in between Grell and William to avoid conflicts. That reminded her… she would have to talk to William soon. He couldn't go on hating Grell like this, especially since they all had to trust each other because of the war. Pretty soon, they heard a female voice yelling from all the way up the stairs.

"So what the hell is your problem?" The woman yelled. "Couldn't you have told me sooner? It only takes two seconds to dematerialize your pathetic self and tell me, no?"

Leah started to laugh.

"That's Lily for you" She said, still giggling.

"She's a lot like you" Jaymee remarked, remembering the first time she'd come to the shinigami world. She heard Leah yelling from all the way inside the house.

Pretty soon, she heard the faint clacking noise of someone running in high heels.

"Leah!"

_How unladylike…. _Jaymee thought as she saw what must have been the demon princess. She was wearing a billowy black knee length dress that faded to red near the pleated skirt line, and the white collar was secured by a red bow. Her hair was auburn in colour, and had what looked like a crystal circlet resting on her head. Lily had green eyes, like emeralds. This surprised Jaymee. She thought all demons had the glowing slit-pupil eyes. Lily's eyes looked human.

"Hello Lily" The two girls hugged, laughing. Even in high heels, Lily was still short. Jaymee had the impression that if Lily took her high heels off, she'd be even shorter than Jaymee herself, but not by much.

Pretty soon, Sebastian followed. He hadn't changed at all since his days working for Ciel Phantomhive; however what changed was the pin, which now bore the royalty symbol of demons. He smiled in greeting, and put his arm around Lily.

"Good afternoon, Leah. A pleasure as always"

"Good afternoon, Sebastian" Leah replied carefully. "Sebastian, Lily, both of you already know Grell and William. This here is Jaymee, the new child of death."

Sebastian nodded to both Grell and William. He noted that Grell was actually being reserved for once, and didn't step out of his seat once to hug him, like he would have had it still been 1889. Instead he kept his arm constantly around a delicate looking blonde girl with black pentagonal shaped glasses. He was actually relieved that he didn't have to have Grell hanging off of him all the time anymore. He applauded this girl silently for making him see sense.

Jaymee smiled and nodded at the black haired man.

"You all seem to have very close family ties" Sebastian noted.

"She is my little sister" William clarified. This wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't really a lie either. (A/N, remember that Jaymee is Marissa reincarnated XD)

"So to what do we owe this pleasurable visit?" Lily asked as she sat down on Leah's other side.

"We have a serious problem" Jaymee said, speaking for the first time since walking into the house. "It's about the escapees from hell"

Lily sighed. "I thought as much… what have you learned?"

"They can't be killed with weapons, Lily. In escaping the middle world, they've absorbed a bit of Hell's powers into them. They're almost as strong as shinigami, and we can't kill them with our death scythes unless we do it in one hit. So the only thing that can damage them is any spell of any sort. My spirits could probably do it. Jaymee's crystals could do it as well… but what we really need is fire" Leah said.

"Ah, so that's why you came" Lily said, grinning. "Well, we've got plenty of that here." Her entire arm burst into flames.

"Show off" Leah accused playfully.

"Hey, it doesn't hurt to do so once in a while." Lily said, laughing, before she became serious again. "We've been thinking that since we can't round them all up and bring them back, I feel like we're going to have to kill them. It's been coming to that for a while now. We don't have any other choice."

Jaymee nodded. "We really need your help, Lily. Will you fight with us?"

Lily nodded.

"You have my word. I will do so, as will Sebastian"

Sebastian nodded.

"Then we have a declaration of war" Jaymee said, smirking.


	32. final battle

Chapter 31: fight

A couple weeks passed by without much event. Lily and Sebastian had already gotten to work immediately. They wanted to hound all of the escapees from hell into one area in the human world where they could be exterminated easily. They had set traps in a wide circle everywhere, traps that were easily detectable, so that they would stay away from those areas, and be trapped inside.

Meanwhile, the shinigami were also preparing to fight. Leah's work had doubled in the past two days, because so many shinigami had gone without being taught how to fight without a death scythe. This meant that Jaymee's workload had also increased quite a bit, but she never complained…

Leah sighed and slid the typewriter to the side and put her head on the desk.

"Hard day?" Jaymee asked.

"You have no idea" Leah said faintly.

"Do you have any news from Sebastian and Lily?"

"Yeah… for now all three worlds have called a truce, so that any amount of demons can wander in the human world without interference, however, Lily will kill any of them who have stolen a soul. William doesn't like the idea of fighting beside demons" She sighed. "Of course… but there's no way around that. I've gotten permission from Mother Death to have another fragment of my powers back. I'm not as strong as I was last year, but it's still better than what I started again with."

"So when do we fight?" Jaymee wondered. The phone rang and Leah answered it. She listened attentively, even though Jaymee couldn't hear a voice on the other end of the line. Leah hung up, and her voice was grim.

"Tomorrow."

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

And so they went the next day into the human world. They teleported just outside the area of which all the escapees were trapped. Lily and Sebastian were already there, waiting. Behind them, hundreds of demons rose up from the shadows, all wearing the uniform of the royal guard. Leah and William had brought every dispatch reaper and every shinigami that could use spells to fight. Pretty soon, they had assembled themselves into a little army.

Jaymee put the hood of the cloak she was wearing over her head, and slid the bird doctor mask over her face, as did Leah. The brothers of death looked exactly the same as well. Pretty soon, you couldn't tell any of them apart from one another, except for the difference of their death scythes. Jaymee had her death scythe hidden, however.

"Are we ready?" Lily asked. Everyone nodded. She disabled one of the traps, and they all walked over it and into the fighting area. All the humans had been evacuated from the area by a very slow spreading fire that wouldn't go out around the edges.

All the escapees from hell had also arranged themselves into an army. Madam Red was at the head of that army. At her right were two unfamiliar escapees from hell. Her red eyes burned almost like a demon's. She smirked.

"So I see you all insist to fight"

"You don't seem scared of us" Lily said, her eyes narrowing. "You do realize who we are, right Madam?"

"My niece's cousin and my nephew's butler" Madam waved a dismissing hand. "Who have somehow managed to become demon royalty... Tell me, Lilyanne, how did you manage to achieve this amazing feat?"

Lily's eyes narrowed.

"I never knew you, Madam. You have no right to call me by my first name."

"But yet you are the one who oversees the punishment of humans for their crimes." Madam said quietly. "You are the one who plants those emotions inside our heads, taunts us to follow our desires, and then punishes us for following those sins. How is that fair?" She asked. All the escapees from hell nodded their heads in agreement.

"Not all humans can go to heaven. Not all of them are worthy of Father." Lily said quietly. "It is our duty to plant those nasty instincts into the minds of humans. Humans fail to think of life as a test. If they manage to hold through, the test is a pass, but if they give in, they fail and have an eternity of punishment. Not all humans are worthy to go to heaven. The ones that cannot, we keep for ourselves, and thus maintain the balance of the earth, which you all seem to want to throw off."

"Throw off for our better well being!"

Lily sighed and shook her head. "Since you are so thick minded, I have nothing more to say to you. Attack." She said quietly to her demon army. "I will end all of this nonsense today."

The battle was complete chaos. All the demons were in red, the shinigami in black. The cloaks both armies wore were easy to distinguish, so they didn't kill their own allies.

Jaymee fought hard. This was just like World War One, only she was on the front lines and not off to the side. Crystals shot out of the ground and encased enemies in pillars. The curse had drained a lot of strength out of her. It made her have to use twice the amount of energy to summon power. Golden mist that took the form of skulls made her aware that Leah was using her powers as well.

She looked around. Leah's eyes were glowing yellow through her mask, as were the eyes of all the brothers of death. Her huge death scythe had the same shine as an executioner's knife, and induced the same fear as she swung it down. She was fighting Madam Red. Despite all of Leah's power, the fight was pretty even. As soon as Leah was too tired to fight Madam, Lily stepped in and burned everything around her, but Madam dodged the way of the fire. The fire was bright blue, the hottest kind. Jaymee was nowhere near the fire but she could feel it burning.

She ran towards Madam Red. Jaymee's eyes glowed the same bright yellow as crystals grew ou of the ground. Madam jumped out of the way just in time and slashed at Jaymee with her weapon. Jaymee skittered backwards. She attacked again, and Jaymee dodged. The roar of a chainsaw nearby made her look sideways. Big mistake...

Madam Red's knife whistled right past her. She dodged it, but it broke her mask, revealing part of her eye, and her messy blonde hair.

"You broke my mask." She said with hate as she took it off. "This will take forever to fix."

"You…" Madam took a step back. "How are you still alive?"

Jaymee smirked. "Surprised?" Her death scythe spiralled towards Madam Red, who pretty much had to bend in half to avoid it. It soared back into her hand and changed into a double bladed sword, with which she attacked. Despite her element of surprise, Jaymee still wasn't strong enough to attack Madam. Even a child of death, the demon princess and the former child of death couldn't take her down.

What to do…

"Jaymee!" Grell ran towards her. She whirled around and stabbed behind her before the escapee even knew what hit him.

"Are you doing all right?" Jaymee asked.

"Yes, and you?"

"Fine… but this isn't working." Jaymee said, biting her lip. "Our powers aren't good enough."

"We've still got to fight." Grell said. Jaymee had an idea. If you were at a disadvantage in power, you could always regain that advantage by outsmarting your opponents. She dragged Grell off to the side.

"What are you doing?" Grell asked. She whispered him his plan.

"Madam Red looks really close to her first Lieutenant. If we can kill him without her noticing, I can assume his disguise, and get close to her and kill her."

"How are you going to look like him, though?"

"Every child of death has a specific power. I can't activate mine because I haven't been put in a life threatening situation. However, there is another way in which a child of death can use their powers. They need a medium for power."

"And you want me to give you that power."

Jaymee nodded.

"If that's fine with you"

"Of course it is, darling. I would do anything for you"

Their hands connected in a bright light. A skull tattoo now burned through Grell's left hand, and on Jaymee's right. Jaymee's hair had grown longer. It was almost floor length, and she had a crown of skulls on her head.

"You look beautiful" He whispered. She smiled.

"Watch this" She said and closed her eyes. Her form began to change until she looked like an identical copy of Grell. She grinned at him and turned back into her original form.

"Cool, huh?"

Grell nodded, a Cheshire cat grin forming on his face.

She put her hood back over her head and crept around the crowd. She wanted to be invisible, like death itself. She didn't become invisible, but her target didn't notice her watching him.

Madam turned to him.

"Hurry up and press the excavation switch"

The man nodded and ran into the building. No sooner was he past the door, Jaymee stabbed him instantly. As he disintegrated, she copied his appearance and made herself look exactly like him. She then ran up to the room. There was what looked like a computer panel up there. She carefully read what it did and took a step back. There was no way she could let this happen.

She rewired a couple of buttons and pressed it. The hum of machinery made the room sizzle. The sound of the clanging had stopped.

"No!" Lily yelled. "What were you thinking?"

Madam Red laughed. "Exactly what I did"

Jaymee walked out of the building. Madam Red smiled adoringly at her.

"You didn't fail me" She said with a smile. "I knew I could trust you"

Jaymee smiled back and walked until she was standing beside Madam Red, and held out her arms. Madam Red hugged her, unknowingly. "We win" She whispered.

"No…" Jaymee said back. "We win" Madam's eyes went wide and she staggered back, dark red staining her shirt. She took off the annoying disguise and threw the cloak to the side. The crystal sword she was holding was soaked up to the hilt in blood. Her long hair blew around in the wind.

"Did you really think I would allow you to set that off?"

Madam caught sight of the crown of skulls on her head.

"Damn…" She whispered. "How dare you kill him?"

"It was only revenge for my life" Jaymee said, smiling. "After everything you put everyone else through, you deserve to die, as did he for supporting you."

Madam Red faded away, still anger, distrust and hate in her eyes. Jaymee thought she saw something like tears as well.

Madam Red's second Lieutenant came running up.

"You… you'll pay" He hissed. Jaymee raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?"

"Just you wait! A shinigami will be the end of all of you!"

He teleported away. Jaymee ran up to follow him, but he was already gone.

"Crap… I let him get away."

Leah walked up and put a hand on Jaymee's shoulder and smiled.

"You did it."

"I did." She agreed with a half laugh. "So now the world isn't going to die?"

"Well, likely not"

"That's a good thing to hear."

"We won…. We won!" The shocked whispers muttered through the crowd until everyone was yelling and cheering. Jaymee ran into Grell's arms, both of them laughing.

William sighed. "If you really like him that much, Jaymee, I'll be fine with it."

"Thank you, Will!" She ran up and hugged him at lightning speed, much as Marissa would have done in her former life. Lily and Leah said goodbye, and the demons returned to their own realm and the shinigami into theirs.

Jaymee looked at the bright sky. What next?

**Hooly crap… 2000 words…. e.e I don't think I've ever written this much for a chapter. There's still probably going to be one or two chapters left before we move onto the next story. Enjoy the fluff that's going to come in later chapters. :D**


	33. under the sky and the stars

Chapter 32:

Life seemed to go back to normal after a little while. William and Grell were finally speaking to each other again. Jaymee had gotten a promotion as a direct assistant to those in the managerial class. The world seemed to have been put right back the way it was, or it seemed like it.

"_Just you wait! A shinigami will be the end of you all!" _His words still rang in Jaymee's head. What did he mean? Surely no shinigami would dare betray their own kind? Jaymee had given back her powers of death the week after, and had passed them down properly. Her eyes had gone back to the standard double ringed yellow green. Her hair had been impossibly long, so she had cut it until it was just above waist length, and now wore it held back by a headband.

She and Grell had gone on their first date a little while ago, and went places whenever time could allow. She was very happy with everything, and she couldn't have asked for better. Grell thought the same.

He walked over to Leah's house. She had invited him over for tea again.

"Hey"

"Hello darling"

They hugged each other and Leah led him into the house with a smile.

"So how have things been going with Jaymee?" She asked. Grell smiled.

"Really well, actually. We went on the most romantic trip _ever _last week." He took a sip of his tea, smiling as he remembered it. Jaymee hadn't seen much of the human world outside of the army, so he had taken her practically everywhere she wanted to go.

"Hmm… I'm glad to hear that."

The look on Leah's face was unrecognizable.

"What? What is it?" He asked.

"Well… have I ever told you how badly I want a little sister?" She asked. Grell did a spit take.

"WHAT?" He said, coughing and choking on his tea. "You can't be serious."

"I am."

"In turn, have I ever told you how much I hate commitment?"

Leah raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you already committed to her? Or are you cheating on her?"

"Hell no!" Grell gathered his thoughts. "I don't know how you can be married at such a young age, Lee-lee. It's not the same for us shinigami as it is for humans. Humans only have to stay married for fifty or sixty years or however long they're alive. We have to stay married until we die, which might be forever! And there are no such things as divorces here."

"Are you thinking of someone else then?"

"NO! I'm already as committed to Jaymee as I can possibly be. She's the only one for me and she always will be."

"Well then seal the deal and put a ring on her finger."

Grell sighed.

"It's not that I don't want to… I'm not even sure where this is going to go…"

Leah sighed.

"She feels like she's not good enough for you. She always is worrying that you'll choose someone else. You can take away those worries if you propose to her. Either way, didn't you say that you _wanted _to start a family?"

"Yes… but…"

"But what? What's the problem?"

Grell hung his head. "I'm too nervous" He said quietly. "I'm scared that she'll say no. I just don't want to screw this up again"

Leah sighed, and then laughed. "You worry too much, Grell. Just do it."

"I…I'll think about it. Though it would be really nice…"

Leah smiled.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

Grell walked around the store. What was he doing here anyway? He kept glancing around; afraid he'd bump into someone he knew. Jeez… he didn't even have the courage to go buy something for his own _girlfriend. _He had no idea how William had done this. He wandered around, looking at various rings half heartedly. It wasn't anything that had to do with the fact that he loved Jaymee. She was the only one for him, and would always be, but he kind of shied away from the idea of marriage.

He sighed. _None _of these rings would be suitable to her taste, or something she would like. Why did all of this have to be so complicated? Leah had told him that he was making this way too complicated for himself, but he couldn't help it.

He made his way to the back of the store, still looking at the various rings. Grell loved shopping. So why did he want to get this over with as fast as possible and leave? He noticed one that seemed to sparkle more than all the others. It was a plain white gold band, but all around it was a web of diamonds. There were so many of them that the entire thing seemed to sparkle, but it wasn't overdone. He bought it quickly and left before anyone could see him. What was wrong with him?

X-x-x-x-x-x-X

"Hello?" Jaymee picked up the phone, and smiled when she heard her favourite voice on the other end of the line. She cradled the phone in between her head and her shoulder as she moved around the house. "Right now?" The roses on her balcony window had twined all the way up to the ceiling. She watered them absent-mindedly. "Sure. Give me half an hour… ok, love you too. Bye" She hung up.

She curled her hair until it hung in thin ringlets and put on a long sparkly top and pants. She hadn't expected Grell to call that late in the evening. Usually they went on dates earlier. Oh well. She waited until she heard the knock on her door.

"Hey" She ran to hug him.

"Shall we get going?" He asked.

"Sure. Where are we going?"

"You'll see" Was all he said. She hopped on the back of the motorcycle and they sped off. They came to a field. The sky was completely clear, without any clouds. He motioned for her to stand beside him and they looked up at the stars.

"It's nice… but why are we here of all places?"

Grell turned and smiled. "They say that every little while, a message will write itself in the stars right over this field. Just watch…"

So she watched. She blinked twice as the stars began to rearrange themselves. Once the message was finished, she looked at Grell incredulously, a smile forming on her lips. "Are you serious?" She asked.

"Very serious, darling" He got down on one knee. "Never in my life did I think I'd ever do this, but here I am. Jaymee-Rose Knightwood, will you accept my hand in marriage?"

Jaymee remained silent for a little while, staring at the ring, before she smiled.

"Do I have to put it on myself?" She asked with a coy smile.

"I can do that for you."

Grell carefully slid the ring on her finger. She threw her arms around him as he stood back up and they smiled together. They were in this together for life, forever together.

X-x-x-X THE END X-x-x-X

**Ok and there we go! Epic fluff. XD Or at least as epic fluff as much as I can write it… because I fail epically at writing fluff. e.e" Hannah's way better at writing fluff. Either way, that's the end of Love in War. **

**BUT! it shall continue. You will see Grell, Leah, William and Jaymee, as well as Ronald and my new OC in my next story, which I already have a few chapters of. It's very iffy so far, as I don't have a good plotline yet, but I will try my best.**

**It shall be called 'A Twisted Little Game', so please read it as soon as you have the chance. I'm not one hundred percent sure about when i will post this, seeing as i'm working on the back story of William the Shinigami with my sister at the moment, so i'm kinda putting my own stuff on the back burner. You all must read the back story. If i get enough substantial reviewers for the back story, i will either tap dance for you guys or play the piano (i am in level 10 royal conservatory of music)**

**Either way, YOU MUST READ IT! The back story is 8 chapters long so far, and not posted up yet, but what we have is more amazing than all my stories put together. :/ so you all have to review. just reading it isn't good enough! because then i don't know if you've read it or not. Either way, i shall do stuff... sooner or later i will start updating like a mad cow again.**

**~darkironprincess17**


	34. author's note! :D

Hey everyone! I realize that I haven't been on fanfiction in a REALLY long time, but don't you worry! I've been working on yet another story with my sister which will be up VERY soon- as soon as our schedule is a little less crowded- and you'll all be very happy you stuck around. :D

its probably our best story yet. (I know, I'm sure you all want to know what it consists of, but you'll have to wait. Look on deviantart for drawings and clues. :3 once again, my deviantart account is the same as my fanfiction account.)

We hope to start updating somewhere around halloween. The new story will be yet another OC fanfiction, and obviously a pairing-because that's all I do- XP Either way, I hope you all are as excited as we are.

~toodles!


	35. the sequelprequel: chapter one

**It's officially here; the sequel to both sweet with a bit of death and love in war! It's going to cover the lives of five shinigami; William, Leah, Grell, Ashlyn and Ronald, eventually Jaymee and what their futures hold for them. Here's chapter one of William. **

**Make sure to check out 'A Long, Long time ago' on Fanfiction~ **

**Enjoy!**

**-Darkironprincess17**

-WILLIAM-

"William! Marissa! Dinner!" comes the voice from the window.

The little girl immediately drops the stick fort she's making and pounces on her older brother. "C'mon Will!"

"I don't wanna" The boy complains, still intently focused on his little sand fort. The kids are still young, the girl being about six and the boy about eight.

"Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll" The girl shakes her brother's arm incessantly. "Mom's not gonna be happy with us"

"Then you go and I'll catch up"

"No!" She clings onto his arm. "I'm staying with you."

After a couple moments of uselessly trying to shake off his sister, the young boy stands and picks Marissa up over his shoulder and trudges towards the house with her, the younger struggling and squealing the entire time in between fits of giggles.

The two Spears children absolutely adore each other. It's doubtful anyone could ever find a closer pair of siblings anywhere in the blue city. They always play together, spend nearly all their time together. They'd chase the neighbour's cat together, make snow-forts together in winter, and if either of them got in trouble, they'd both make sure they both got in trouble and shared the blame.

A little William finally throws open the door and plops Marissa down on the couch, heading over to kick off his shoes. When Marissa kicks off her shoes from the couch, she tries throwing them towards the shoe rack, but she misses miserably. The shoes rocket off the wall, knocking a painting to the ground and several other pairs of shoes before tumbling about a good three feet away from where they should be.

Marissa freaks out and grabs the painting, only to nearly drop it again.

Their mother quietly walks through the kitchen doorway into the living room at the sound of the crash, and merely sighs and shakes her head at her daughter's tearful apologies before taking the frame from her and replacing it on the wall. It's not like it was uncommon. Marissa was so terribly clumsy that she fell at least twice a day, and couldn't even drink something without slopping it on herself first by accident.

William was also clumsy, but not nearly to the same extent. After having been asked if he already required glasses, Will had vehemently shaken his head, dreading the idea of glasses even at this young age. He certainly needed them, but he wasn't going to actually admit that fact yet.

The little pair wander into the kitchen to take their seats as their mother serves them food. Today's dinner is mashed potatoes with chicken and gravy. Unfortunately, it's either William or Marissa who dislike whatever it is their mother cooks, and today it's Marissa's turn to push her plate away in disgust. She picks away at some chicken before stuffing a bunch of mashed potatoes over onto Will's plate.

"Hey!"

Marissa points a finger to her lips, with big pleading puppy eyes.

William sighs and shakes his head at his sister before eating the rest of his food before they were caught.

Moments later, their mother walks in, a bit surprised that Marissa actually ate her dinner. She walks over and ruffles her hair.

"Apple pie for dessert?"

"yeah!" Both siblings yell in unison before high five-ing each other, scrambling out from their seats and chasing each other up the stairs for first dibs on the couch to watch loony tunes.


End file.
